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PRACTICAL EDUCATIONISTS. 
 
Published by 
 
 JAMES MACLEHOSE, GLASGOW. 
 
 MAC MILL AN AND CO., LONDON. 
 
 Edinburgh, Edinoiistou <5r= DoHgla 
 
 Dublin, W. H. Smith &> Son. 
 
 MDCCCLXXVI. 
 
PRACTICAL EDUCATIONISTS 
 
 AND THEIR 
 
 SYSTEMS OF TEACHING. 
 
 JAMES LEITCH, 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND NORMAL SCHOOL, GLASGOW. 
 
 UNI7BRSIT7 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 JAMES MACLEHOSE, 61 ST. VINCENT STREET. 
 
 Jhrblislur to the ^niiier^iti). 
 1876. 
 
Ur 
 
 v r<3 Q / 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THIS book is the product of my official duties 
 as Principal of a Normal School, the various 
 Essays being part of a series of lectures deli- 
 vered by me to the students in training. My 
 object in drawing them up was to give in- 
 creased interest to the study of education as 
 a science, by connecting its principles with 
 the educationists or teachers who originated 
 them, or first wrought them out successfully in 
 practice. My efforts in this direction have not 
 been suggested by the recent outcry for the 
 instruction of normal students in the science 
 of their adopted profession ; but have been 
 carried out during the whole period of my 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 Principalship, a fact sufficiently proved from 
 the following extract, from the report of the 
 Committee of Council on Education for 1868- 
 69, pp. xxv, 476 : ' To the second year's stud- 
 ents, the Rector has given a course of formal 
 lectures, on the principles and practice of teach- 
 ing, with the benefit of all the aid he could 
 derive from some of the best foreign writers 
 on popular education. He adds commonly to 
 the interest of his lecture by connecting the 
 principles of which he speaks with the lives 
 and characters of the men that mainly represent 
 them. The effect is seen in the results of the 
 Christmas examination on school management, 
 which for the last year shews a better percen- 
 tage for " excellent " or " good," than had been 
 usual before. These lectures of the Rector are 
 occupied exclusively with the methods of tuition 
 which are applicable to all subjects, such being 
 the portion of this extensive subject which he 
 has fitly chosen for himself/ 
 
 Each educationist in the series is, so to speak, 
 a representative man, and has more or less left 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 the impress of his personal teaching or princi- 
 ples on English education. Locke brings before 
 us the great public school system of England, 
 and is the chief advocate we have for private 
 education. Pestalozzi is the father of industrial 
 and elementary schools for the people ; Bell 
 and Lancaster created the monitorial and sub- 
 sequent pupil-teacher system, now widely pre- 
 valent ; Stow displays the fruit of the training 
 system in full maturity ; Wilderspin's name 
 is indelibly associated with infant schools ; and 
 Spencer is our leading champion for science 
 teaching. Other educationists of equal merit 
 and interest might have been included, but it 
 was necessary to reduce the book to a reason- 
 able size. Should this volume prove serviceable, 
 it may be followed by another. 
 
 Prepared with the purpose stated, the papers 
 enter into greater detail than may to the general 
 reader seem desirable: but when it is considered 
 that one object of the book is to enable teachers, 
 from the descriptions given, to apprehend and 
 put into practice methods which in some instances 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 must be quite novel to them, the details may not 
 seem to be out of place. In general, I think, I 
 have confined myself to what is likely to prove 
 useful and interesting to practical teachers ; and 
 when it has been at all convenient, I have adopted 
 the plan of letting each author describe his 
 methods in his own words. My own experience 
 and opinions are interspersed throughout, and 
 will prove, it is hoped, a useful addition. 
 
 The book will be found to contain, I think, all 
 that is useful and interesting in the systems of 
 the educationists taken up. Each paper has 
 been prepared with the greatest care ; and I trust 
 the whole will prove serviceable in saving the 
 time and labour of my brethren, who have a 
 desire to study minutely the principles of their 
 profession a great many of the books referred to 
 being either out of print, or not readily accessible 
 to the ordinary schoolmaster. At the same time, 
 it will afford me much satisfaction if the perusal 
 of the book stimulate the young teacher to go to 
 the fountain-head and read for himself the works 
 of educationists of this and other countries. It is 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 a study for him of the deepest importance ; and 
 the more he reads the richer and rarer will his 
 knowledge become. 
 
 The book should also prove of much service 
 to members of school boards interested in the 
 history of education, and in the details of school- 
 method, many points of interest and usefulness to 
 them being fully discussed in its pages. To such 
 of them as are desirous to make themselves 
 familiar with recognized principles of teaching, 
 I can suggest no more interesting way than that 
 by which they are here illustrated. As practical 
 educationists, they will find it beneficial to make 
 themselves acquainted with the best and most 
 advanced results yet reached in education : bear- 
 ing in mind that " in order to make discoveries 
 that shall help the great cause forward, one must 
 start where the great masters have stopped. The 
 systems of education that have borne sway in 
 the world, the principles on which these systems 
 have been based, their results, and the causes of 
 their successes and failures all these must be 
 understood by those who are to make any real 
 
x ' PREFACE. 
 
 progress in education. And more than this, a 
 knowledge of what has been done before him 
 puts the student in possession of the best prin- 
 ciples for his guidance in administering any 
 -system." * 
 
 * " Proceedings of the United States National Education 
 Association, i874/' p. 237. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 Chief Events in his life. What led to the Publication of his 
 "Thoughts on Education" Character of the Book Sug- 
 gestive to Parents as well as Teachers Deals mainly with the 
 Education of a " Gentleman " This should be carried on at 
 Home and not at a Public SchoolHis Objections to Public 
 Schools Cowper's " Tirocinium" Locke's Estimate of the 
 Character and Work of a Tutor Physical Education Rules 
 for the Preservation of Health Remarks on Moral Discipline 
 He is opposed to Harsh Measures and to Corporal Punish- 
 ment His Suggestions as to suitable Rewards and Punish- 
 ments Learning should be made attractive His plan for 
 Teaching to read Committing to Memory Directions as 
 to the Teaching of Writing Arithmetic Grammar Com- 
 position History and Geography French Latin He is 
 against the Prescription of Latin Themes and Verses Re- 
 ligious Teaching Dugald Stewart on the " Thoughts"- 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 The Last Years of Locke's Life His Versatility as a Writer 
 Traits in his Character, suggestive to the youthful Teacher. 
 
 Pages 1-51. 
 
 HENRY PESTALOZZI. 
 
 Pestalozzi's Name a " Household Word " His Early Life and 
 Character Personal Appearance He studies first for the 
 Church and afterwards for the Law Finally decides on 
 Farming His Love-letter and Marriage Converts his Farm 
 into an Industrial School His own Account of its Opera- 
 tion Reduced to Poverty by the Experiment Takes to 
 writing Books on Education " Evening Hour of a Hermit " 
 "Leonard and Gertrude " " Mothers' Manuals "In- 
 fluence of the French Revolution in Switzerland Pestalozzi 
 volunteers to teach the Orphans of Stanz His Experience 
 related in " How Gertrude Teaches Her Children " Invents 
 the Simultaneous and Monitorial Systems His Moral Lessons 
 excellent Originates Object Lessons, their defects Intro- 
 duction of Object Lessons into England Opinion of Pro- 
 fessor Moseley on Object Lessons Pestalozzi's Teaching at 
 Burgdorf Account by Ramsauer Pestalozzi's Lessons on 
 Form, Number, and Language Arithmetic Pestaiozzian 
 Arithmetic introduced into England He inculcated the 
 Teaching of Things, but failed to carry the Principle out 
 in his own Lessons This is exemplified by his Mode of 
 teaching Geography Pestalozzi at Buchsee Contrast be- 
 tween him and De Fellenberg Pestalozzi at Yverdun 
 Fichte's Opinion of Pestalozzi and of the " Situation " in 
 Germany Visit of Karl von Raumer to Yverdun His De- 
 scription of Pestalozzi and his Colleagues Raumer's 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 Expectations not realised Pestalozzi's Practice fell far short 
 of his Theories, Pages 52-120. 
 
 DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 Sketch of his Life School at Madras Invention of the Monitor- 
 ial System Letter to Mr. Edgeworth Publication of an 
 "Experiment on Education" Full Account of the Moni- 
 torial System Suggestions for its Introduction Modes of 
 Discipline under this System Trial by Jury Example of 
 the Good Effects of Monitorial Discipline Dr. Bell had the 
 Secret of Successful Teaching The " Paidometer "Ad- 
 vantages and Disadvantages of the Monitorial System Its 
 Chief Advocates quoted The System Introduced in England 
 The "Bell and Lancaster" Controversy Mrs. Trimmer 
 The System dates further back than either Bell or Lan- 
 caster National Society and British and Foreign School 
 Society Founded Dr. Bell's Legacies Chairs of Education 
 in Scottish Universities, .... Pages 121-148. 
 
 JOSEPH LANCASTER. 
 
 Contrast between the Characters of Bell and Lancaster Lan- 
 caster's Antecedents His Account of the London Schools of 
 the time He Opens a School in the Borough Road Its 
 great Popularity Lancaster's Monitorial System System 
 of Teaching Reading Writing Arithmetic His Modes of 
 Discipline Religious Teaching Lancaster's Interview with 
 the King His Prosperity and Extravagance His Lecturing 
 Tours He attempts to extend the Monitorial System to 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Agriculture Resigns his Post at the Borough Road His 
 subsequent Difficulties and Death Estimate of his Character 
 and Work, Pages 149-165. 
 
 SAMUEL WILDERSPIN. 
 
 Origin of Infant Schools School at New Lanark, the first 
 Infant School in Great Britain Others established in Lon- 
 don Wilderspin appointed Master His first Experiences 
 Great Success Called to organize Infant Schools throughout 
 England and Scotland Death of his Wife, the first Infant 
 School Mistress Wilderspin in Glasgow and Edinburgh 
 Status of the Scottish Teacher in his time Points on which 
 Wilderspin and Stow agree Wilderspin's Views of what an 
 Infant Teacher should be His Five Rules for the Guidance of 
 Teachers The Teacher should follow Nature Train the 
 Child's Observing Powers by means of Objects The " Kin- 
 dergarten " System should be studied along with Wilderspin's 
 The Ball Frame invented by Wilderspin Pictures used and 
 recommended by him The Principle of Combining Amuse- 
 ment with Instruction carried too far in his Rhymes on Weights 
 and Measures Institution 'of the Home and Colonial Infant 
 School Society, Pages 166-185. 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 Stow's Attention early directed to Sabbath School Teaching His 
 Experience in the Saltmarket He opens a week day 
 Model School Impetus given to the Opening of similar 
 Institutions in Scotland Foundation of the first Normal 
 
CONTENTS. xv 
 
 School Account of the Early Working of this Institution 
 Criticism Lessons Bible Teaching the great Feature of Stow's 
 System Robert Owen's Visit Foundation of a second 
 Normal School The "Training" System illustrated Dis- 
 tinction between Bible Reading, Bible Teaching, and Bible 
 Training Amusing Account by Stow of his Visit to a School 
 in England Example of a " Training Lesson " The " Train- 
 ing System" applied to the Teaching of Science The Training 
 System applied to Book-keeping and other Subjects " Pictur- 
 ing out " Examples Its use in making " Abstract Lessons " 
 clear to Children In "picturing out" Bible Words and 
 Scenes, the Saviour's Example should be imitated Example 
 of a Bible Lesson " pictured out " System of " picturing out " 
 inexhaustible The Sympathy of Numbers The " Mixed " 
 System advocated by Stow Advantages of the "Mixed" 
 System Results of this System in America The conjoint Use 
 made of the Gallery and Playground in model Training 
 Superintendence by Teacher in Playground Stow's Opinions 
 on minor School Matters His Influence on Education, 
 
 Pages 186-238. 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 Spencer would have the Scholastic World revise its Work His- 
 Estimate of the true " Measure of Value " in Knowledge 
 Classification of the leading "Activities" of Life: (a) those 
 which minister to Self-preservation ; (b) those which are Neces- 
 sary to gain a Livelihood; (c) those which have for their Object 
 ' the Rearing and Discipline of Offspring ; (d) those which are 
 involved in the Maintenance of proper Social and Political 
 Relations; (e) those which minister to the Tastes and Feelings 
 
xvi CONTENTS. 
 
 Science best fits a Man. for these Spheres of Activity Science 
 is valuable/^ se, and also as a Means of Discipline Science 
 versus Language Spencer on Intellectual Education Old 
 Methods of Teaching are giving place to New The New 
 should conform to Nature-4-Teaching should proceed from 
 the Simple to the Complex Teaching should proceed from the 
 Definite to the Indefinite Teaching should proceed from the 
 Concrete to the Abstract The Education of the Child should 
 proceed on the same Principles as the Education of the Race 
 It should proceed from the Empirical to the Rational Self- 
 development should be encouraged to the utmost Education 
 begins in the Cradle Object Lessons should be given during 
 Childhood and Youth The Child should be encouraged to 
 Paint and to Draw The Acquirement of Knowledge should be 
 made Pleasurable Spencer's Moral Discipline The Discip- 
 line of Natural Consequences Examples of its Operation 
 Advantages of this Mode of Discipline It is the " divinely or- 
 dained" Method Practical Maxims and Rules for Moral 
 Education, Pages 239-298. 
 
Chief. ^ vents in his Life His " Thoughts on Education" Charade? 
 oj the Book Deals mainly with the Education of a "Gentle- 
 man" Objections to Public Schools Estimate of the Character 
 and Work of a Tutor Physical Education Moral Discipline 
 Opposed to harsh measures Plan for teaching to Read 
 As to the teaching of Writing, Arithmetic , 6<r. Religious 
 teaching Traits suggestive to the Yotithful Teacher. 
 
 JOHN LOCKE, better known as a metaphysician 
 than as an educationist, was born at Wrington, in 
 Somersetshire, in 1632. Of his father nothing 
 noteworthy is recorded, except that he possessed 
 a moderate landed property, and was a captain 
 in the Parliamentary army during the Civil War. 
 Having received his elementary education at West- 
 minster School, Locke entered Christ Church 
 College, Oxford, in 1651, where he was distin- 
 guished among his fellow-students by his talents 
 and learning. His nephew and biographer, Lord 
 King, informs us that Locke had in the course of 
 his life the choice of three distinct roads to fortune, 
 and, perhaps, to celebrity ; the temptation of con- 
 
2 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 siderable preferment in the church, the practice 
 of physic as a profession, and the opportunity of 
 engaging in diplomatic employments. 
 
 He made choice, in the first place, of the second 
 of these roads, and, after the usual course of 
 preparation, entered upon the practice of medicine, 
 for which he cherished a fondness during his 
 whole life. While practising at Oxford, it was a 
 fortunate circumstance for him that, in 1666, 
 Lord Ashley, afterwards the celebrated Earl of 
 Shaftesbury, came to that city to seek relief 
 from an abscess in his chest, the consequence of 
 a fall from his horse. Locke, happening to be 
 summoned as his attendant, remained with his 
 lordship for some time, and after making himself 
 acquainted with the nature of the complaint, 
 advised that the abscess should be opened, which, 
 as the story goes, was the means of saving the 
 patient's life. From this incident, the well known 
 friendship between the two men took its origin. 
 Lord Ashley invited Locke to reside permanently 
 with him, and would not permit him to practise 
 medicine out of his house, except among some of 
 his particular friends.* From this period a com- 
 plete change took place, both in the direction of 
 Locke's studies, and in his habits of life. His 
 place of residence was transferred from the uni- 
 
 * " Locke and Sydenham," by Dr. John Brown, p. 12. 
 
THO UGHTS ON ED UCA TION. 3 
 
 versity to the metropolis, and from thence he 
 occasionally passed over to the Continent, visiting 
 France, Germany, and Holland, where he had 
 opportunities of profiting by the conversation of 
 some of the most distinguished persons of his age. 
 The last named country was his favourite place 
 of residence, and it was during his exile there in 
 1687 that he completed his celebrated work, the 
 " Essay concerning Human Understanding," the 
 plan of which had been conceived as early as 1670. 
 Having returned to England soon after the Revo- 
 lution, he published the first edition of this work 
 in 1690, about the time that Newton published his 
 " Principia," works which contributed to render 
 illustrious the era of the Revolution. Three years 
 later he published his " Thoughts on Education," 
 a subject to which his attention was turned from 
 the circumstance that he was entrusted with 
 directing the studies of Lord Ashley's son, and 
 subsequently of his grandson, the second and third 
 Earls of Shaftesbury respectively, the latter of 
 whom proved to be a man of genius, and is well 
 known in literature as the author of several poli- 
 tical and philosophical works, which go collectively 
 under the name of the "Characteristics"; in refer- 
 ence to which book, and to the great exertions of 
 the present representative of this noble family, the 
 seventh Earl, to improve the social condition of 
 
4 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 the working classes, a jeu d' esprit, expressive of 
 the fact that ' humanity is one of Shaftesbury's 
 characteristics/ found currency a few years 
 ago. 
 
 Locke, having this onerous duty entrusted to 
 him, was led to examine the ordinary education of 
 the day, and, finding it to be unsatisfactory, he set 
 about making such improvements upon it as he 
 thought necessary ; and here I cannot refrain 
 
 m remarking that, if the study of medicine 
 H happily prepared Locke's mind for the study of 
 v \ metaphysics, as Professor Dugald Stewart is of 
 opinion it did, the study of both sciences pre- 
 pared his mind in an especial manner for the 
 study of education. Written originally in a 
 series of letters to a friend, Locke's book is 
 quaint, and almost gossipy in style, and repeats 
 itself at different places, \published when he had 
 attained the age of sixty, it gives evidence of 
 matured judgment and of ripe experience); the 
 suggestions it contains being of great value, 
 some of them having only of late years begun 
 to make their way. Though the book may 
 seem to modern readers to shine with the bor- 
 rowed lustre of the author's fame as a writer 
 on philosophy, it was by no means viewed in 
 the same light by his contemporaries. On the 
 contrary, Leibnitz speaks of it as a work of 
 
EDUCA TION OF CHILDREN. 5 
 
 still greater merit than the "Essay on Human 
 Understanding " ; and its success was so marked 
 that it ran through several editions in English, 
 and was translated into French, Dutch, and 
 German, and had much influence on education. 
 
 In the preface of Locke's book, the following^ 
 paragraph occurs : ' The well-educating of their 
 children is so much the duty and concern of 
 parents, and the welfare and prosperity of th^ A 
 nation so much depends on it, that I woulcf / 
 have every one lay it to heart ; and after having 
 well examined and distinguished what fancy 
 custom, or reason advises in the case, set hi| 
 helping hand to promote everywhere that way| 
 of training up youth, with regard to their| 
 several conditions, which is the easiest, short-t 
 est, and likeliest to produce virtuous, useful,^ 
 and able men in their distinct callings ; though \ 
 that most to be taken care of is the gentle- 
 man's calling.' * (p. 5.) 
 
 This passage, though penned two hundred years 
 ago, might be read with interest in any address 
 to parents, or appeal to the public on behalf of 
 education of modern date. It shows the im- 
 mense importance which Locke placed on edu- \ 
 cation, concerning which he says in another place, 
 
 * " Thoughts on Education." Edited by J. A. St. John. 
 London, 1836. (All references are to this edition.) 
 
JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 all the men we meet with, nine parts of 
 / I [ten are what they are good or evil, useful or 
 I not by their education ; it is that which makes 
 \ pe great difference in mankind/ And his in- 
 I istancing the 'gentleman's calling/ as of first 
 4/ importance, enables me to premise that Locke's 
 treatise bears chiefly on the education or up- 
 I bringing of a gentleman, and that from the 
 
 V period of infancy, and is on this account 
 
 not so well suited to the requirements of the 
 elementary teacher ; but as it is the duty of a 
 teacher to study the child's nature, he will find 
 Locke to be a very suggestive and discreet 
 guide to the knowledge he seeks. To parents 
 also, the book should be specially interesting, 
 a considerable portion of it being addressed 
 quite as much to them as to teachers. Not a 
 few parents may consider the measures it pro- 
 poses as too harsh, and it probably carries the 
 principle of self-denial too far, or at least farther 
 than would be agreeable to most mothers ; but 
 I can assure them that Locke does not make 
 this mistake if mistake it can be called from 
 a harshness of disposition, or want of sympathy 
 1 for children, for he seems to love them with his 
 whole heart, his love manifesting itself in minute 
 solicitude as to their welfare; for example 
 * Great care should be taken in waking them, 
 
 \. 
 
OUTLINE OF THE WORK. 7 
 
 that it be not done hastily, nor with a loud or 
 shrill voice, or any other sudden violent noise. 
 This often affrights children, and does them great 
 harm; and sound sleep, thus broken off, with 
 sudden alarms, is apt enough to discompose any 
 one. When children are to be wakened out of 
 their sleep, be sure to begin with a low call, and 
 some gentle motion, and so draw them out of it 
 by degrees, and give them none but kind words 
 and usage, until they are come perfectly to them- 
 selves, and being quite dressed, you are sure they 
 are thoroughly awake. The being forced from 
 their sleep, how gently soever you do it, is pain 
 enough to them ; and care should be taken not to 
 add any other uneasiness to it, especially such 
 that may terrify them.' (p. 37.) 
 
 In giving an outline of the book, I shall 
 confine my remarks within the four following 
 divisions 
 
 I. Locke's advocacy of private education, 
 II. His remarks on physical education. 
 
 III. His observations on moral discipline. 
 
 IV. His suggestions on subjects to be taught, 
 and how to teach them. 
 
 In the first place, then, I have to state that 
 Locke is the chief advocate we have in educational 
 "literature for private as opposed to public educa- 
 He is of opinion that the education of a 
 
8 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 j^endeman^should be entrusted to a tutor, and be 
 carried on at home, in his father's sight, and not 
 at a public school. His own experience at 
 Westminster had given him a lively sense of the 
 evils prevalent at public schools, where, in the 
 words of Cowper, he had seen 
 
 i The pert made perter, and the tame made wild.' 
 
 And being of opinion that virtue and good man- 
 ners are more important than school learning, and 
 that those in charge of children should study well 
 their najqu^s and aptitudes, a task which is ex- 
 tremely difficult, if not impossible, in large schools, 
 he says, ' I am sure, he who is able to be at the 
 charge of a tutor at home, may there give his 
 son a more genteel carriage, more manly thoughts, 
 and a sense of what is worthy and becoming, with 
 a greater proficiency in learning into the bargain, 
 and ripen him up sooner into a man, than any at 
 school can do. Not that I blame the schoolmaster 
 in this, or think it to be laid to his charge. The 
 difference is great between two or three pupils in 
 the same house, and three or four score boys 
 lodged up and down ; for let the master's industry 
 and skill be never so great, it is impossible he 
 should have fifty or an hundred scholars under 
 is eye any longer than they are in the school 
 together: nor can it be expected, that he should 
 
GOOD BREEDING. g 
 
 instruct them successfully in anything but their 
 books; the forming of their minds and manners 
 requiring a constant attention and particular 
 application to every single boy, which is impos- 
 sible in a numerous flock, and would be wholly 
 in vain (could he have time to study and cor- 
 rect every one's particular defects, and wrong 
 inclinations), when the lad was to be left to 
 himself, or the prevailing infection of his fel- 
 lows, the greatest part of the four and twenty 
 hours.' (p. 91.) 
 
 And again, ' Till you can find a school, 
 wherein it is possible for the master to look 
 after the manners of his scholars, and can 
 shew as great effects of his care of forming 
 their minds to virtue, and their carriage to 
 good breeding, as of forming their tongues to 
 the learned languages, you must confess that 
 you have a strange value for words, when pre- 
 ferring the languages of the ancient Greeks and 
 Romans to that which made them such brave 
 men, you think it worth while to hazard your 
 son's innocence and virtue for a little Greek and 
 Latin. For, as for that boldness and spirit which 
 lads get amongst their playfellows at school, it 
 has. ordinarily such a mixture of rudeness and ill- 
 turned confidence, that those misbecoming and 
 disingenuous ways of shifting in the world must 
 
I0 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 >be unlearned, and all the tincture washed out 
 again, to make way for better principles, and such 
 manners as make a truly worthy man. He that 
 considers how diametrically opposite the skill of 
 living well, and managing as a man should do 
 his affairs in the world, is to that malpertness, 
 tricking, or violence learned amongst schoolboys, 
 will think the faults of a more private education 
 infinitely to be preferred to such improvements, 
 and will take care to preserve his child's innocence 
 and modesty at home, as being nearer of kin, and 
 more in the way of those qualities which make a 
 useful and able man/ (pp. 87-8.) 
 
 And he would not be afraid of a personal 
 comparison of the results of the rival system. 
 
 ' Take a boy,' he says, ' from the top of a 
 grammar school, and one of the same age, bred 
 as he should be in his father's family, and bring 
 them into good company together, and then see 
 which of the two will have the more manly 
 carriage, and address himself with the more be- 
 coming assurance to strangers. Here, I imagine, 
 the schoolboy's confidence will either fail or dis- 
 credit him ; and if it be such as fits him only for 
 conversation of boys, he were better to be 
 without it.' (p. 92.) 
 
 The evils which Locke charges against public 
 schools, are, I believe, by no means exaggerated, 
 
EVILS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS. j r 
 
 and are worthy of serious attention. The public 
 school with which he was acquainted, and which 
 he had in view when he wrote, was similar to 
 Rugby, Harrow, Eton, and Winchester Schools at 
 the present time, where hundreds of boys, sent 
 from greater or less distances, lodge together 
 under the same roof, and receive instruction. The 
 cruelties which the boys inflict, one upon the 
 other, especially the strong upon the weak, when 
 the eyes of the masters are not upon them, have 
 formed the subject of public comment and literary 
 effort from time to time, e.g., the recent exposure 
 of 'tunding' at Winchester, and the graphic 
 account of 'fagging* in " Tom Brown's School 
 Days." About a hundred years after Locke, 
 Cowper wrote a poem of nearly one thousand 
 lines against the system which, as he was also a 
 pupil of Westminster, it is interesting to peruse 
 along with the " Thoughts." It is entitled 
 "Tirocinium," and contains a bitter denuncia- 
 tion of the practice of sending boys to public 
 schools. ' Why,' he exclaims, 
 
 ' Why then resign into a stranger's hand 
 A task as much within your own command ; 
 That God and nature, and your interest too, 
 Seem with one voice to delegate to you ? 
 Why hire a lodging in a house unknown 
 For one whose tenderest thoughts all hover round your 
 own ? ' 
 
12 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 For the teachers he has no respect, calling 
 them 
 
 ' Public hackneys in the schooling trade, 
 Who feed a pupil's intellect with store 
 Of syntax truly, but with little more.' 
 
 And he will listen to no arguments in favour 
 of the public system, even though instances be 
 adduced of school bred boys remaining virtuous. 
 
 Such rare exceptions, shining in the dark, 
 Prove rather than impeach the just remark, 
 As here and there a twinkling star descried 
 Serves but to shew how black is all beside.' 
 
 Important testimony to the same effect is borne 
 by the late Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, who, though 
 one of the most successful head-masters of a 
 public school, was fully alive to the evils of the 
 system. In writing to a friend on the subject, he 
 acknowledges that it would be with fear and 
 trembling that he should send his own sons to a 
 public school ; and confesses that a very good 
 private tutor would tempt him to try private 
 education.* 
 
 It is worthy of note that, about the time 
 
 Cowper's poem was published, an extraordinary 
 
 example occurred in public life of the truth of 
 
 the theory of education, held in common by 
 
 * Stanley's " Life of Arnold," p. 330. 
 
THE EDUCATION OF PITT. jj 
 
 Locke and Cowper, and which is beyond question 
 the best example that can be adduced in favour 
 of home education. I refer to the case of the 
 younger Pitt, who became prime minister of Eng- 
 land at the age of twenty-four, a result solely 
 to be accounted for by the fact that he was 
 educated at home, and not at school, and had 
 constantly before him the example of his distin- 
 guished father, who proved to him the best of 
 schoolmasters. I am indebted for. this example 
 to a lecture on the " Two Pitts," delivered at 
 Glasgow in January, 1874, by Professor Seeley 
 of Cambridge. 
 
 Even if we were to yield to the influence of 
 Locke's reasoning, and of Cowper's rhetoric on 
 this subject, we should be obliged to confess that 
 private tuition, however well suited for the sons 
 and daughters of parents in the upper classes of 
 society, could never overtake the education of 
 the children of the poor, and can never to any 
 extent be adopted as a means of national educa- 
 tion. The system proposed by Locke, there- 
 fore, need not be refuted here. A serious ob- /\ 
 jection to its adoption appears to me to lie in / 
 the fact that, however preferable a home edu- f 
 cation might be for securing the end Locke I 
 had in view, the average child, so brought up, \ 
 would lack that healthy stimulus to learning only J 
 
I 4 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 J'fo be had in its purity and strength in the 
 presence of other children ; and if the large 
 middle-class schools of England were re-modelled, 
 so that boys might attend them, and still be 
 subject to home influences (their removal from 
 which seems to me to be the origin of the evil) ; 
 and further, if girls were admitted to these schools 
 on the same footing as boys, the evils complained 
 of by Locke would be remedied in a great degree. 
 
 I As I will shew more fully in my chapter on David 
 Stow, the mixed system tends to improve boys 
 in manners, language, and personal habits, while 
 girls on the other hand receive corresponding 
 benefit. This system has been fairly tried in the 
 large schools of America, and been attended with 
 complete success. 
 
 Locke's estimate of the character and work of 
 a tutor is, as may be guessed, very high. His 
 first qualifications are breeding and knowledge of 
 the world. 
 
 [' The great work of a governor/ he says, ' is 
 to fashion the carriage and form the mind ; to 
 settle in his pupil good habits, and the principles 
 of virtue and wisdom ; to give him by little and 
 little a view of mankind, and work him into a 
 love and imitation of what is excellent and 
 praiseworthy ; and in the prosecution of it to 
 give him vigour, activity, and industry. The 
 
THE WORK OF A TUTOR. I 5 
 
 studies which he sets him upon are but as it 
 were the exercises of his faculties and employ- 
 ment of his time, to keep him from sauntering 
 and idleness, to teach him application, and 
 accustom him to take pains, and to give him 
 some little taste of what his own industry must 
 perfect. For who expects that under a tutor 
 a young gentleman should be an accomplished 
 critic, orator, or logician ? go to the bottom of 
 metaphysics, natural philosophy, or mathema- 
 tics ? or be a master in history or chronology ? 
 though something of each of these is to be taught 
 him ; but it is only to open the door that he may 
 look in, and as it were begin an acquaintance, 
 but not to dwell there, and a governor would be 
 much blamed that should keep his pupil too long, 
 and lead him too far in most of them./ But of 
 good breeding, knowledge of the world, virtue, 
 industry, and a love of reputation, he cannot 
 have too much ) and if he have these, he will not 
 long want what he needs or desires of the other. 
 And since it cannot be hoped he should have 
 time and strength to learn all things, most pains 
 should be taken about that Which is most neces- 
 sary ; and that principally looked after which 
 will be of most and frequentest use to him in 
 the world.' (pp. 140-41.) 
 
 In answer to the Earl of Peterborough, who 
 
1 6 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 had applied to him to recommend a tutor for his 
 son, he says, 'I must beg leave to own that I 
 differ a little from your Lordship in what you 
 propose ; your Lordship would have a thorough 
 scholar, and fl think it not much matter whether 
 
 "'j he be anW great scholar or no ; if he but under- 
 stand Latin well, and have a general scheme of 
 the sciences, I think that enough ; but I would 
 have him 1 well ^bred, well tempered, a man that, 
 having been conversant with the world, and 
 amongst men, would have great application in 
 observing the humour and genius of my Lord 
 your son ; and omit nothing that might help to 
 form his mind, and dispose him to virtue, know- 
 ledge, and industry, \ This I look upon as ,the ] 
 of a tutor ; this is putting life into 
 his pupil, which, when he has got, masters 
 / of all kinds are easily to be had ; for, when a 
 / young gentleman has got a relish of knowledge, 
 / the love and credit of doing well spurs him on ; 
 he will, with or without teachers, make great 
 V advances in whatever he has a mind to. Mr. 
 ^Newton learned his mathematics only of himself; 
 and another friend of mine Greek without a 
 master; though both these studies seem more 
 to require the help of a tutor than any other.'* 
 (Locke's advice to the parent is to spare no 
 * Lord King's " Life of Locke," p. 8. 
 
CO WPER'S AD VICE. 1 7 
 
 care nor cost to find such a tutor, for he that can ^ 
 procure a tutor that will trainhis child's mind to. / 
 virtue", and his rrmrmefs' tcTgood breeding, makes 7 
 aTBetter purchase for the child than if he had laid j 
 out the money on the purchase of more acresjj-^ 
 Cowper is urgent in offering similar advice, and 
 is. equally alive to the difficulties of finding such a 
 man. 
 
 ' But having found him, be thou duke or earl, 
 Show thou hast sense enough to prize the pearl, 
 And as thou wouldst the advancement of thine heir 
 In all good faculties beneath his care, 
 Respect, as is but rational and just, 
 A man deemed worthy of so dear a trust.' 
 
 II. It does not surprise one to find that Locke, 
 having prepared himself for the practice of medi- 
 cine, and being fully alive to the great blessings 
 of health and strength, from the fact that his 
 own health through life was very delicate, and 
 required constant care, places great importance 
 on physical training, and begins his work with 
 it, remarking 'Though our chief care should be 
 about the inside (the child's mind), yet the clay- 
 cottage is not to be neglected. I shall, therefore, 
 begin with the case, and consider, First, thejiealth 
 of the body/ 
 
 On this subject, Locke's book contains a store 
 of valuable precepts, on such subjects as air, diet, 
 
1 8 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 sleep, clothing, daily habits, &c., which I strongly 
 advise every teacher to make his own. 
 
 Physical training does not directly fall within 
 the sphere of an elementary teacher's duties ; 
 yet I hold it to be essential that he should make 
 himself acquainted with the laws of health, that 
 he should strive to obey them himself, and, 
 when it lies in his power, that he should teach his 
 pupils to know and obey them. And the Com- 
 mittee of Council, by introducing drill into their 
 educational programme, indicate that, in their 
 opinion, it is the duty of the schoolmaster to 
 lend a helping hand in the physical training of 
 the children of the nation. Without entering 
 
 - into details, Locke's rules for the preservation 
 of health are thus summed up : < ^Plenty ofj^pen 
 air, exercise, and Asleep ; plain diet, no wine., or 
 
 \ strong drink, and very little or no physic ; not 
 too warm and strait clothing; especially the head 
 and feetJkepFcold, and the fee^_oftenused to 
 cold water, and exposed to wet.' (p. 44.) 
 
 If any exception were taken to these simple 
 and easily observable rules, it would certainly 
 be to the last ; the modern maxim being, " Keep 
 the head cool, and the feet warm," a safer rule 
 than Locke's by far. Indeed, a careful perusal 
 
 (of the book will enable the student to perceive 
 that Locke errs on the side of recommending 
 ' 
 
QUESTIONABLE MAXIMS. IO/ 
 
 overly-harsh physical measures, such as would 
 be apt to send delicate children to early graves. 
 He says, ' I would also advise his feet to be 
 washed every day in cold water, and to have his 
 shoes so thin that they might leak and let in 
 water whenever he comes near it.' (p. 13.) 
 
 The practice common in country districts and 
 in poor families of allowing children to run bare- 
 foot, except in very hard weather, is certainly 
 preferable to that recommended here. The carry- 
 ing out of these rules, however, in the case of his 
 own ward, is said to have been successful ; Lord 
 Ashley, a delicate youth, having become, under 
 Locke's directions, a strong man. 
 
 III. On the subject of moral discipline, Locke's 
 remarks are invaluable, and should be thought- 
 fully studied by every teacher. In opening the 
 subject he says very truly and beautifully 
 4 Due care being had to keep the body in 
 strength and vigour, so that it may be able to 
 obey and execute the orders of the mind ; the 
 next and principal business is to set the mind 
 right, that on all occasions it may be disposed to ' 
 consent to nothing but what may be suitable 
 to the dignity and excellency of a rational 
 creature.' (p. 44.) And again ' As the strength/ 
 of the body lies chiefly in being able to en-1 
 dure hardships, so also does that of the mind.| 
 
20 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 /And the great principle and foundation of all 
 virtue and worth is placed in this, that a man 
 i is able to deny himself his own desires, cross 
 \ his own inclinations, and purely follow what 
 / reason directs as best, though the appetite lean 
 the other way.' (p. 45.) 
 
 It is the duty of parents, therefore, to train 
 
 J their children to self-denial when ' their minds are 
 
 most tender, most easy to be bowed'; for if it is 
 
 delayed till the children are grown up, it may be 
 
 too late to ' get out those weeds which their own 
 
 hands have planted, and which have taken too 
 
 deep a root to be easily extirpated. For he that 
 
 hath been used to have his will in everything, as 
 
 long as he was in coats, why should we think it 
 
 strange that he should desire it and contend for 
 
 it still when he is in breeches.' (p. 46). 
 
 / /" The child, then, when he is young, must be 
 
 j ( taught to submit his will to the reason of others, 
 
 [ >J otherwise he cannot be expected to submit to his 
 
 J own reason when he is of an age to make use of 
 
 / it. This teaching should begin before the child 
 
 V. leaves its cradle. 
 
 * ' The first thing children should learn to know 
 should be, that they were not to have anything 
 because it pleased them, but because it was 
 
 thought fitjbjrjthem If they were never suffered 
 
 to obtain their desire by the impatience they ex- 
 
THE BEHA VI UR OF CHILDREN. 2 1 
 
 pressed for it, they would no more cry for other 
 things than they do for the moon.' (p. 53.) Illus- 
 trations of this truth, he says, are common. 
 
 ' I have seen children at a table, who, whatever 
 was there, never asked for anything, but content- 
 edly took what was given them ; and, at another 
 place, I have seen others cry for everything they 
 saw, must be served out of every dish, and that 
 first, too. What made this vast difference but 
 this, that one was accustomed to have what they 
 called or cried for, the other to go without it ? 
 The younger they are, the less, I think, are their 
 unruly and disorderly appetites to be complied 
 with ; and the less reason they have of their own, 
 the more are they to be under the absolute power 
 and restraint of those in whose hands they 'are. 
 From which, I confess it will follow, that none 
 but discreet people should be about them.' 
 (pp. 53-4.) When the child gets up in years, 
 however, he should be admitted nearer to the 
 parent's familiarity, 'so shall you have him 
 your obedient subject when he is a child, and 
 your affectionate friend when he is a man.': 
 In giving this advice, Locke seems to have 
 drawn upon his own experience in childhood, 
 his father, of whom he always spoke with 
 great respect and affection, having exacted the 
 utmost deference from his son in the early part of 
 
22 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 his life, but gradually treated him with less and 
 less reserve, as he grew up.* If such a course is 
 
 X'***' 
 
 f pursued, a child will receive from his early educa- 
 \ tion some influence that will sway his life, and 
 \ acquire habits that will be woven into the very 
 / principles of his nature. 
 
 With respect to the manner in which this early 
 discipline is to be carried out, it is only due to 
 Locke to say that he is quite opposed to severity, f 
 The child must be taught self-denial, but not by \ 
 harsh measures. 
 
 s^ > ' Great severity of punishment/ he says, ' does 
 
 I put very little good nay, great harm in educa- 
 
 fV ftion ; and I believe it will be found that, ceteris 
 
 I \paribus, those children who have been most chas- 
 
 V_, tised, seldom make the best men/ (p. 57.) 
 
 Care must be taken, therefore, that the child's 
 mind be not curbed, nor humbled too much, by 
 ^ N too strict a hand being kept over it. The subjec- 
 
 tion desired should, if possible, be attained by I 
 -, v^^moral^ means. 
 
 ' He that has found a way how to keep up a 
 child's spirits, easy, active, and free, and yet at 
 / the same time to restrain him from many things 
 he has a mind to, and to draw him to things that 
 are uneasy to him ; he, I say, that knows how to 
 reconcile these seeming contradictions has, in my 
 * Lord King's Life of Locke, p. 2. 
 
CHASTISEMENT. 23 
 
 opinion, got the true secret of education. The 
 usual, lazy, and short way by chastisement and 
 the rod, which is the only instrument of govern- 
 ment that tutors generally know, or ever think 
 of, is the most unfit of any to be used in edu- 
 cation/ (p. 59.) 
 
 For if our discipline merely succeed in inspiring r\ 
 children with a dread of bodily pain, what a de- I / 
 spicable motive this is to govern their actions and 
 direct their conduct. 
 
 ' I cannot think, therefore/ he says, ' that any ^^ 
 correction is useful to a child where the shame of r v 
 
 suffering for having done amiss does not work J 
 
 i-*^ 
 
 more upon him than the pain.' (p. 60.) 
 
 On this point Locke undoubtedly influenced 
 the opinions of Stow. 
 
 What the teacher^ should aim at, accordingly, 
 in administeringcorporal punishment, should not 
 be^tojnflict a requisite amount of bodily pajrr, 
 (but to create _a_ sense of shame in the mind of I 
 (the culprit. I am of opinion, therefore, that' 
 the practice adopted by some teachers, of tak- 
 ing a boy into a side room, and there flogging 
 him, is quite indefensible ; as also the prac- 
 tice of putting a file of boys into a corner of 
 the school-room, and there directing a volley 
 of 'palmies' at them in an off-hand way. Cor- ; 
 poral punishment, when it is resorted to at all, /' 
 
 MV <V% HI 
 
24 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 I should be inflicted publicly, and in a serious man- 
 I ner, the eyes of the whole school being turned 
 ^on the offender, in which case a feeling of shame 
 is almost certain to be aroused. But it may be 
 said that there are instances, in which it seems 
 almost necessary to inflict bodily pain per se as a 
 means of correction. These, I trust, are rare, and 
 I would by all means advise the teacher to resort 
 to expulsion rather than degrade his own moral 
 character and that of the school by flogging boys 
 into submission. To have even one pupil of such 
 a stamp may win for the indiscreet teacher the 
 character of a ' plagosus Orbilius ' (Horace, Epis- 
 tles, 2nd book, i, 70), who, in the words of Fuller, 
 /mars more scholars than he makes.' While 
 Locke is clearly of opinion that all moral means at 
 the teacher's disposal should be exhausted in the 
 f first place, he admits that there is one fault for 
 'which children should be beaten, and that is 
 obstinacy or rebellion. 
 
 - - * And in this, too/ he says, ' I would have it 
 /ordered so, if it can be, that the shame of the 
 whipping, and not the pain, should be the greatest 
 jpart of the punishment. Shame of doing amiss, 
 I and deserving chastisement, is the only true re- 
 straint belonging to virtue. JThe smart of the rod, 
 ijshame acc^m|iank^_it_jiot^ sooiiceases and is 
 forgotten ; and will quickly by use lose its terror. 
 
MORAL MEANS. 
 
 25. 
 
 I have known the children of a person of quality 
 kept in awe by the fear of having their shoes 
 pulled off, as much as others by apprehensions of 
 a rod hanging over them. Some such punish- 
 ment I think better than beating ; for it is shame 
 of the fault, and the disgrace that attends it, that 
 they should stand in fear of rather than pain, if 
 you would have them have a temper truly in- 
 genuous.' (pp. 104-5.) 
 
 Further, he observes that jpunishment should 
 never be accompanied by an outburst of anger ; 
 ahcTm inculcating 'judiciousness in punishment,' 
 he says ' This, I confess, requires something 
 more than setting children a task, and whipping 
 them without any more ado, if it be not done 
 and done to our fancy. This requires care, 
 attention, observation, and a nice study of chil- 
 dren's tempers, and weighing their faults well, 
 before we come to this sort of punishment;'- 
 an observation which every teacher should lay 
 to heart. 
 
 The teacher should be sparing in his correction 
 for the best of all reasons, that it is his business 
 to create a liking for learning, and, as Locke says, 
 ' Children come to hate things which were at first 
 acceptable to them, when they find themselves 
 whipped, and chid, and teased about them. Offen- 
 sive circumstances ordinarily affect innocent things 
 
26 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 which they are joined with, and the very sight of a 
 cup wherein any one uses to take nauseous physic 
 turns his stomach, so that nothing will relish well 
 out of it, though the cup be never so clean and 
 well shaped, and of the richest materials/ (p. 61.) 
 Frequent correction, then, should be carefully 
 avoided ; the strap or cane should on no account 
 be seen lying in terrorem on the teacher's desk 
 or table ; and instead of taking for his model 
 Goldsmith's schoolmaster, 
 
 ' A man severe he was, and stern to view/ 
 
 or imitating the example of Hood's Irish school- 
 master who kept his children 
 
 4 Sitting like timid hares, all trembling on their forms/ 
 
 the teacher should cultivate gentleness of manner 
 towards his pupils, and while he strives by a 
 combination of mildness and firmness to secure a 
 due measure of respect towards himself, he should 
 carefully avoid creating in their minds any feeling 
 of fear or terror. As Locke beautifully says, 
 ' It is impossible children should learn anything 
 whilst their thoughts are possessed and disturbed 
 with any passion, especially fear, which makes the 
 strongest impression on their yet tender and weak 
 spirits. Keep the mind in an easy calm temper, 
 when you would have it receive your instructions, 
 
GENTLENESS. 27 
 
 or any increase of knowledge. It is as impossible 
 to draw fair and regular characters on a trembling 
 mind, as on a shaking paper.' (p. 256.) 
 
 Locke's remarks remind me of Cowper's lines 
 on Discipline, which he personifies as a sage who 
 dwelt, 
 
 ' In colleges and halls in ancient days, 
 When learning, virtue, piety, and truth 
 Were precious, and inculcated with care. 
 His eye was meek and gentle, and a smile 
 Played on his lips ; and in his speech was heard 
 Paternal sweetness, dignity, and love. 
 The occupation dearest to his heart 
 Was to encourage goodness ; learning grew 
 Beneath his care a thriving vigorous plant/ 
 
 On the other hand, Locke is of opinion that 
 f x " N flattery and rewards of things that are pleasant I r" 
 should nojt be made use of in education. 
 
 'He that will give to his son apples or sugar- " 
 plums, or what else of this kind he is most 
 delighted with, to make him learn his book, does 
 but authorize his love of pleasure, and cocker 
 up that dangerous propensity, which he ought 
 by all means to subdue, and stifle in him. J To. 
 make a good, a wise, and a virtuous man, it is 
 fit he should learn to cross his appetite, and 
 deny his inclination to riches, finery, or pleasing 
 his palate, &c., whenever his reason advises the 
 contrary, and his duty requires it. But when you 
 
28 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 draw him to do anything that is fit by the offer of 
 money, or reward the pains of learning his book 
 by the pleasure of a luscious morsel ; when you 
 promise him a lace cravat, or a fine new suit, 
 upon performance of some of his little tasks, 
 what do you, by proposing these as rewards, but 
 allow them to be the good things he should aim 
 at, and thereby encourage his longing for them, 
 and accustom him to place his happiness in 
 -them ? ' (p. 63.) 
 
 What then shall we propose to ourselves as 
 suitable rewards and punishments for children ? 
 and Locke grants that rewards and punish- 
 ments should be proposed. We shall give our 
 x- ^author's answer in his own words : ( The re- 
 wards and punishments then, whereby we should 
 keep children in order, are quite of another 
 kind, and of that force, that when we can 
 get them once to work, the business, I think, is 
 done, and the difficulty is over. ^Esteem _and 
 disgrace are, of all others, the most powerful 
 incentives to the mind, when once it is brought 
 to relish them.^,Jf you can once get into children 
 a love of credit, and an apprehension of shame 
 and disgrace, you have put into them the true 
 principle, which will constantly work, and incline 
 them to the right. But it will be asked, How 
 shall this be done ? I confess it does not, at 
 
PRAISE AND COMMENDATION. 29 
 
 first appearance, want some difficulty ; but yet 
 I think it worth our while to seek the ways 
 (and practise them when found) to attain this, 
 which I look on as the great secret of education. 
 
 ' First, children (earlier, perhaps, than we think) * f , 
 are very sensible of praise and commendation. 
 They find a pleasure in being esteemed and 
 valued, especially by their parents, and those 
 whom they depend on. If, therefore, the father 
 caress and commend them when they do well, 
 show a cold and neglectful countenance to them 
 upon doing ill, and this, accompanied by a like 
 carriage of the mother and all others that are 
 about them, it will, in a little time, make them 
 sensible of the difference ; and this, if constantly 
 observed, I doubt not, but will, of itself, work! 
 more than threats or blows, which lose their] 
 force when once grown common, and are of no 
 use when shame does not attend them ; and, 
 therefore, are to be forborne, and never to be 
 used, but in the case hereafter mentioned, when 
 it is brought ta extremity. 
 
 ' But, secondly, to make the sense of esteem "^ 
 or disgrace sink the deeper, and be of the more / 
 weight, other agreeable or disagreeable things V" 
 should constantly accompany these different 
 states ; not as particular rewards and punish- 
 ments of this or that particular action, but as 
 
-jO JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 necessarily bel onging to, and constantly attending 
 one who, by his carriage, has brought himself into 
 a state of disgrace or commendation. B, which 
 way of treating them, children may as much as 
 possible be brought to conceive that those that 
 are commended, and in esteem for doing well, will 
 necessarily be beloved and cherished by every 
 body, and have all other good things as a con- 
 sequence of it ; and, on the other side, when any 
 one by miscarriage falls into disesteem, and cares 
 not to preserve his credit, he will unavoidably fall 
 under neglect and contempt, and in that state, the 
 want of whatever might satisfy or delight him will 
 follow. In this way the objects of their desires 
 are made assisting to virtue, when a settled ex- 
 perience from the beginning teaches children that 
 the things they delight in belong to, and are to be 
 enjoyed by those only who are in a state of repu- 
 tation. If, by these means, you can come once to 
 shame them out of their faults (for besides that, I 
 would willingly have no punishment), and make 
 them in love with the pleasure of being well 
 thought of, you may turn them as you please, and 
 they will be in love with all the ways of virtue.' 
 (pp. 66-8.) 
 
 1 I may conclude the section on moral discipline 
 by stating that Locke recommends that curiosity \ 
 in children, " which is but an appetite after know- 
 
SUGGESTIONS. 3 r 
 
 ledge, should be carefully encouraged, and kept" 
 busy and active." (i) Do not check nor discoun- 
 tenanc any inquiries he shall make, nor suffer 
 them to be laughed at ; but answer all his 
 questions, and explain the matter he desires to 
 know. His mind will A thus insensibly expand ; for 
 knowledge is grateful to the understanding, as 
 light to the eyes. (2) Take care that children 
 never receive deceitful or deluding answers. (3) 
 Perhaps it may not sometimes be amiss to excite 
 their curiosity, by bringing strange and new 
 things in their way on purpose to engage their 
 inquiry. 
 
 IV. I now come to the fourth and last division 
 of my subject viz., the subjects that Locke recom- 
 mends for study, and the methods he suggests for 
 teaching them. Though in enumerating the chief 
 requisites of a.gentlemans education, he_giy.es 
 preference to them in th^_following_order- 
 tue, wisdom, good -breeding, and ^jggning he 
 """ earning, though kepT sub- 
 servient to higher-qualities, should be acquired 
 in a proper way, and to a considerable ex- 
 tcrit^ And to "shew that the art of teaching "~ 
 is with him a matter of the greatest importance, 
 I need only quote the following remark: 
 ' The great skill of a teacher is to get, and/f"^ 
 keep, the attention of his scholar ; whilst hej \ 
 
32 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 has that, he is sure to advance as fast as the 
 learner's abilities will carry him ; and without 
 that, all his bustle and bother will be to little or no 
 purpose. To attain this, he should make the child 
 comprehend (as much as may be) the usefulness 
 of what he teaches him, and let him see by whaj; 
 he has learnt that he canjdtojsome thing which he 
 could not before ; something, which gives him 
 some power and real advantage above others who 
 are ignorant of it. To this, he should add wegt- 
 ness in all his instructions ; and by a certain 
 tenderness in his whole carriage, make the child 
 sensible that he loves^him, and designs nothing 
 
 but hisgood, the only way to beget love in the 
 ^ i in ._* j * & 
 
 child, which will make him hearken to his lessons, 
 and relish what he teaches him.' (pp. 256-57.) 
 
 And, in the following passages, he enjoins 
 not only the necessity of interesting his pupils, 
 but of varying his lessons in a suitable way : 
 * The natural temper of children disposes their 
 minds to wander novelty alone takes them ; 
 whatever that presents, they are presently eager 
 to have a taste of, and are as soon satisfied with 
 it. They quickly grow weary of the samejthing, 
 and so have almost their whole delight in change 
 and variety. It is a contradiction to the natural 
 state of childhood for them to fix their fleeting 
 thoughts. Whether this be owing to the temper 
 
ON TEACHING OF READING. 
 
 33 
 
 of their brains, or the quickness or instability of 
 their animal spirits, over which the mind has not 
 yet got a full command ; this is visible, that it is a 
 pain to children to keep their thoughts steady to 
 any thing. A lasting continued attention is one 
 of the hardest tasks can be imposed on them ; 
 and, therefore, he that requires their application, 
 should endeavour to make what he proposes as 
 grateful and agreeable as possible/ (pp. 254-55.) 
 /Through all Locke's ^jrer.Hons about teaching, I , 
 there runs this advice, to make the subject as I 
 attractive as possible, and to combing ,iqgtructjon I 
 wittr amujajienr.y Hear what he says on the 
 
 teaching of r^ad^p- : * When the child can 
 talk, it is time he should begin to learn to 
 read. But as to this, give me leave here to 
 inculcate again what is very apt to be forgot- \ 
 ten viz., that great care is to be taken that it 
 be never made as a business to him, nor he look I 
 on_itLas_,a,task. I have always had a fancy that I 
 learning might be made a play and recreation to ] 
 children, and that they might be brought to 1 
 desire to be taught, if it were proposed to them as j 
 a thing of honour, credit, delight and recreation, 
 or as a reward for doing something else. . . . 
 Children should not have anything like work, 
 or serious, laid on them ; neither their minds nor 
 their bodies will bear it. It injures their healths ; 
 
34 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 and their being forced and tied down to their 
 books, in an age at enmity with all such restraint, 
 has, I doubt not, been the reason why a great 
 many have hated books and learning all their 
 lives after/ (pp. 229-31.) 
 
 He accordingly suggests contrivances for teach- 
 ing children to read, whilst they think they are 
 only playing, and instances examples of the suc- 
 cess of such contrivances. 
 
 ' I know a person of great quality (more yet to 
 be honoured for his learning and virtue than for 
 his rank and high place), who, by pasting on the 
 six vowels (for in our language y is one) on the 
 six sides of a die, and the remaining eighteen 
 consonants on the sides of three other dice, has 
 made this a play for his children, that he shall win 
 who, at one cast, throws most words on these 
 four dice ; whereby his eldest son, yet in coats, 
 has played himself into spelling with great eager- 
 ness, and without once having been chid for it, 
 or forced to it.' (p. 233.) 
 
 ' When by these gentle ways he begins to be 
 
 able to read, some easy pleasant book, suited to 
 
 1 his capacity, should be put into his hands, wherein 
 
 | the entertainment that he finds might draw him 
 
 |on, and reward his pains in reading. To this 
 
 Spurpose, I think " <*Esop*s]Fables " the best, 
 
 which being stories apt to delight and entertain 
 
FABLES." 35 
 
 a child, may yet afford useful reflections to a 
 grown man ; and if his memory retain them 
 all his life after, he will not repent to find 
 them there, amongst his manly thoughts and 
 serious business. If his ^Esop has pJtiuS in 
 it, it will entertain him much the better, and 
 encourage him to read, when it caxaS_the 
 increase of knowledge with it ; for such visible 
 objects children hear talked of in vain, and with- 
 out any satisfaction, whilst they have no ideas of 
 them ; those ideas being not to be had from 
 sounds, but from the things themselves, orjjas 
 pictures. And therefore I think, as soon as he 
 begins to spell, as many pktur^sjaLajaiirials should 
 be got him as can be found, with the printed 
 names to them, which at the same time will invite 
 him to read, and afford him matter of inquiry and 
 knowledge. And if those about him will talk to 
 him often about the stories he has read, and hear 
 him tell them, it will, besides other advantages, 
 add encouragement and delight to his reading 
 when he finds there is some use and pleasure in 
 it. These baits seem wholly neglected in the 
 ordinary method, and it is usually long before 
 learners find any use or pleasure in reading, 
 which may tempt them to it, and so take books 
 only for fashionable amusements or impertinent 
 troubles, good for nothing.' (pp. 236-38.) 
 
36 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 (Locke's recommendations about reading-books 
 shew that he was far ahead of the practice of his 
 age ; indeed, it is only of late years that views, 
 similar to his own, have been carried out in the 
 many excellent series now offered to the public. 
 In connection with reading there is a good and 
 useful practice now adopted in many schools viz., 
 of making the children commit to memory note- 
 worthy passages both in prose and poetry ; but 
 Locke informs us that he sees no use in this at 
 all. And he disposes of the usual argument in 
 favour of the practice in the following way : 
 ' I hear it is said that children should be em- 
 ployed in getting things by heart to exercise and 
 improve their memories. I could wish this were 
 said with as much authority of reason as it is with 
 forwardness of assurance, and that this practice 
 were established upon good observation more 
 than old custom ; for it is evident that strength 
 of memory is owing to a happy constitution, 
 and not to any habitual improvement got by 
 exercise.' (p. 274.) 
 
 In this respect he is undoubtedly wrong ; but 
 I suspect he has chiefly in view the learning of 
 passages from Greek and Latin authors, though 
 his intention is by no means clear. He thinks, 
 however, that boys should commit to memory 
 passages which are worth remembrance ; and 
 
POETRY. 
 
 37 
 
 ' such wise and useful sentences being once given 
 in' charge to their memories, they should never 
 "tTcTsuffered to forget againTtmt be oiten"~called 
 to account for them ; whereby, besides the use 
 these sayings may be to them in their future life, 
 as so many good rules and observations, they will 
 be taughtjo reflect often, and bethink themselves 
 what they have to remember, wEich_ jgjthe, only 
 way- to make the, memory quick and ^useful.' 
 " 
 
 Whatever exception may be taken to the com- 
 mitting of prose, few will deny that the learning 
 of poetry cultivates the taste, and enables the 
 child to acquire choice words, and to become 
 familiar with beautiful thoughts. On this ac- 
 count, I am of opinion that children should begin 
 to learn verses as soon as they can read with 
 fluency. Locke's opinion may, in a great mea- 
 sure, have been influenced by the fact that he 
 was quite insensible to the beauties of poetry, 
 and held in abhorrence the poetic art, expressing 
 it as his opinion that 'a father who wishes his 
 son a poet must surely desire to have him bid 
 defiance to all other callings and business.' 
 
 I now proceed to give Locke's directions as to 
 the teaching of writing, and on this subject I 
 have to remark, that the practice introduced by 
 the Revised Code, and now universal in schools, 
 
38 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 of carrying on reading, writing, and ciphering 
 together, from the time of the child's entrance 
 into school, is ahead of Locke's system. He says, 
 ' When a child can read English well it will be 
 seasonable to enter him in writing.' 
 
 After giving directions about holding the pen, 
 and placing the arm and body to the paper, he 
 goes on to say, ' These practices being got over, 
 the way to teach him to write without much 
 trouble, is to get a plate graved with the charac- 
 ters of such a hand as you like best ; but you 
 must remember to have them a pretty deal bigger 
 than he should ordinarily write ; for every one 
 naturally comes by degrees to write a less hand 
 than he at first was taught, but never a bigger. 
 Such a plate being graved, let several sheets of 
 good writing paper be printed off with red ink, 
 which he has nothing to do but go over with a 
 good pen filled with black ink, which will quickly 
 bring his hand to the formation of those charac- 
 ters, being at first shewed where to begin, and 
 how to form every letter. And when he can do 
 that well, he must then exercise on fair paper, 
 and so may easily be brought to write the hand 
 you desire.' (p. 242.) 
 
 [ Locke, it will be observed, is the originator of 
 the traced line system which is generally adopted 
 in school copies at the present time. And as 
 
ON DRA WING. 
 
 39 
 
 drawing and writing now usually go hand in hand 
 in the best schools, I cannot forbear quoting 
 Locke's well-deserved encomium on the usefulness 
 of the former art : ' When he can write well and 
 quick, I think it may be convenient not only to 
 continue the exercise of his hand in writing, but 
 also to improve the use of it further in drawing 
 a thing very useful to a gentleman in several occa- 
 sions, but especially if he travel, as that which helps 
 a man often to express in a few lines well put 
 together, what a whole sheet of paper in writing 
 would not be able to represent and make intelli- 
 gible. How many buildings may a man see, how 
 many machines and habits meet with, the ideas 
 whereof would be easily retained and communi- 
 cated by a little skill in drawing, which, being 
 committed to words, are in danger to be lost, or, 
 at best, but ill retained in the most exact descrip- 
 tions ! I do not mean that I would have your 
 son a perfect painter ; to be that to any tolerable 
 degree will require more time than a young gen- 
 tleman can spare from his other improvements of 
 greater moment. But so much insight into per- 
 spective and skill in drawing as will enable him 
 to represent tolerably on paper anything he sees, 
 except faces, may, I think, be got in a little time, 
 especially if he have a genius to it; but when that 
 is wanting, unless it be in things absolutely neces- 
 
4O JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 sary, it is better to let him pass them by quietly, 
 than to vex him about them to no purpose ; and 
 therefore in this, as in all other things not abso- 
 lutely necessary, the rule holds, Nil invitd 
 Minerva' (pp. 242-44.) 
 
 In the matter of aribw&}ic Locke offers no 
 
 practical suggestions, contenting himself with 
 
 saying, * Arithmetic is of so general use in all 
 
 ; : parts of life and business, that scarce anything 
 
 I is to be done withoutit. This is certain, a man 
 
 F cannot have too inuch of it, nor_too_perfectly ; 
 
 he shoulcr"tnerefore begin to be exercised in 
 
 counting as soon and as far asTie is capable" of 
 
 it, and^ do something- jn it every day, till he is 
 
 master of the art of numbers/ (p. 280.) 
 
 On the kindred subject of book-keeping, he 
 expresses his strong sense of its usefulness : * It 
 is seldom observed that he who keeps an account 
 of his income and expenses, and thereby has con- 
 stantly under view the course of his domestic 
 affairs, lets them run to ruin ; and I doubt not but 
 many a man gets behind hand before he is aware, 
 or runs further on when he is once in, for want 
 of this care or the skill to do it. I would there- 
 fore advise all gentlemen to learn perfectly 
 merchants' accounts.' (p. 324.) 
 
 This advice is equally valuable to men of all 
 ranks and professions, and Locke adds to its value 
 
GRAMMAR. 4! 
 
 by recommending the father to require his son to 
 keep all the home accounts, as soon as he has 
 acquired sufficient skill to undertake the task. 
 
 On the subject of grammar, Locke expresses 
 himself strongly and sensibly agajyn^Jthe practice 
 of taking up the time of boys with Graek and 
 Latin grammar when the grammar of their own 
 
 - , mfmf ** .-.-.;'," I 
 
 tongue is never proposed to them as worthy of* 
 their care and attention. In respect to foreign 
 languages, he considers that learning them by 
 rote would serve well enough for the common 
 affairs of life and ordinary commerce, instancing 
 the fact that many express themselves quite 
 properly in the English tongue, who have re- 
 ceived no instruction in the grammar of the 
 language ; and after this expression of opinion 
 we are not surprised to hear from him that if 
 grammar ought to be taught at any time, it must 
 be to one that can speak the language already ; 
 (p. 264); an opinion strongly shared in by Herbert 
 Spencer. His partiality for practical skill is still 
 further apparent in his observations on 'style? 
 or, as we usually term it, ' composition' 
 
 ' It might not be amiss/ he says, ( to make 
 children, as soon as they are capable of it, often 
 tell a story of anything they know ; and to correct 
 at first the most remarkable fault they are guilty 
 of, in their way of putting it together. When that 
 
42 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 fault is cured, then to shew them the next, and 
 so on, till one after another all, at least the gross 
 ones, are mended. When they can tell tales 
 pretty well, then it may be the time to make them 
 write them.' (p. 292.) 
 
 This suggestion seems to have met with re- 
 cognition in the compilation of the standards 
 of examination proposed by the Education 
 Department. Still further to practise them 
 in composition, he goes on to say "When 
 they understand how to write English, with 
 due connection, propriety, and order, and are 
 pretty well masters of a tolerable narrative style, 
 they may be advanced to writing of letters ; 
 wherein they should not be put upon any strains 
 of wit or compliment, but taught to express their 
 own plain easy sense, without any incoherence, 
 confusion or roughness. The writing of letters 
 has so much to do in all the occurrences of human 
 life, that no gentleman can avoid shewing himself 
 in this kind of writing. Occasions will daily force 
 him to make use of his pen, which besides the 
 consequences that in his affairs, his well or ill 
 managing of it often draws after it, always lays 
 him open to a severer examination of his breed- 
 ing, sense, and abilities, than oral discourses ; 
 whose transient faults, dying for the most part 
 with the sound that gives them life, and so not 
 
LANGUAGES. 43 
 
 subject to a strict review, more easily escape 
 observation and censure.' (pp. 293-94.) 
 
 On history and geography as branches of 
 learning, there is nothing noteworthy in Locke's 
 pages, but in the matter of languages he is very 
 explicit and minute. A gentleman should study 
 his owri language in the first instance ; but, if he 
 has time to go further, he should by all means 
 acquire a knowledge of French, Latin, and Greek. 
 French, he thinks, should be taken up first. 
 
 ' As soon as he can speak English, it is time 
 for him to learn some other language. This 
 nobody doubts of when French is proposed. 
 And the reason is because people are accustomed 
 to the right way of teaching that language, which 
 is by talking it into children in constant-con- 
 versation, and nojL.by grammatical rules. The 
 Latin tongue would easily be taught the same 
 way if his tutor, being constantly with him, would 
 talk nothing else to him, and make him answer 
 still in the same language. But because French 
 is a living language, and to be used more in 
 speaking, that should be first learned, that the yet 
 pliant organs of speech might be accustomed to 
 a due formation of those sounds, and he get the 
 habit of pronouncing French well, which is the 
 harder to be done the longer it is delayed.' 
 (pp. 246-47.) 
 
44 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 After French should come Latin a language 
 which he looks upon as absolutely necessary to a 
 gentleman ; but at the same time he reminds his 
 readers that nothing can be more ridiculous than 
 that a father should waste his own money and 
 his son's time, in setting him to learn Latin 
 when he designs him for a trade, (p. 247.) And 
 how applicable are the following remarks to the 
 practice in country schools at the present day : 
 'Could it be believed, unless we had every- 
 where amongst us examples of it, that a child 
 should be forced to learn the rudiments of a lan- 
 guage which he is never to use in the course of 
 life that he is designed to, and neglect all the 
 while the writing a good hand, and casting ac- 
 counts, which are of great advantage in all con- 
 ditions of life, and to most trades indispensably 
 necessary ? But, though these qualifications, re- 
 quisite to trade and commerce, and the business 
 of the world, are seldom or never to be had at 
 grammar schools, yet thither, not only gentlemen 
 send their younger sons, intended for trades, blit 
 even tradesmen and farmers fail not to send their 
 children, though they have neither intention nor 
 ability to make them scholars. If you ask them 
 why they do this, they think it as strange a ques- 
 tion as if you should ask them why they go to 
 church. Custom serves for reason, and has, to 
 
OF TEACHING LATIN. 45 
 
 those who take it for reason, so consecrated 
 this method, that it is almost religiously ob- 
 served by them, and they stick to it as if 
 their children had scarce an orthodox educa- 
 tion unless they lear *ed Lilly's Grammar. 1 (pp. 
 248-49.) 
 
 This practice is, happily, not an unmixed evil, 
 inasmuch as the mental training /acquired in the 
 getting up of the dead language is a good thing 
 in itself; but equally beneficial training can be 
 obtained in the study of a modern language, 
 which has the double advantage of being service- 
 able in after-life. On this subject I confess that 
 my sympathies are very much with Locke ; and 
 to let it be seen that there is no prejudiced ele- 
 ment in these sympathies, I frankly acknowledge 
 that I spent more time over the acquirement of 
 Greek and Latin, in my course at the university, 
 and in subsequent study, than over any other 
 branch of learning with which my attention has 
 been engaged. 
 
 f In regard to the method of teaching Latin, 
 Locke is in favour of its being carried on by 
 talking and reading. Trouble the child with no 
 grammar at all, but let him learn Latin as he 
 does French : ' If, therefore, a man could be got 
 who, himself speaking good Latin, would always 
 be about your son, talk constantly to him, and 
 
46 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 suffer him to speak or read nothing else, this 
 would be the true and genuine way, and that 
 which I would propose, not only as the easiest 
 and best, wherein a child might, without pains 
 or chiding, get a languag which others a*e wont 
 to be whipt for at school six or seven years 
 together/ (p. 250.) 
 
 If such a man cannot be got, the next best 
 course is to have the child taught ' by taking 
 some easy and pleasant book, such as "yEsop's 
 Fables,'' and writing the English translation (made 
 .as literal as it can be) in one line, and the Latin 
 words which answer each of them just over it in 
 another. These let him read every day over and 
 over again, till he perfectly understands the Latin, 
 and then go on to another fable, till he be also 
 perfect in that, not omitting what he is already 
 perfect in, but sometimes reviewing that, to keep 
 it in his memory.' (p. 251.) 
 
 We hear Jacotot's voice, a century later, incul- 
 cating the same method, and practising it at 
 Louvain, in drilling the young Flemings into a 
 knowledge of French. 
 
 Locke shows his good sense in denouncing 
 the practice of giving boys Latin themes and 
 verses to write ; and he enjoins the parent to 
 obtain for his son exemption from this infliction 
 by all the means in his power, ' insisting, if it 
 
RELIGIOUS TEACHING. 47 
 
 will do any good, that you have no design to 
 make him either a Latin orator or poet/ 
 
 ' If boys' inventions are to be quickened by 
 such exercise,' he adds, ' let them make themes 
 in English where the r have facility and a com- 
 mand of words, and will better see what kind 
 of thoughts they have when put into their own 
 language.' 
 
 Locke's first method of teaching Latin is no 
 doubt borrowed from Montaigne, an educationist 
 whose ideas he has absorbed in many things ; and 
 his second method is obviously a modification of 
 Ascham's plan of double translation. 
 [ In respect to religions teaching, he denounces 
 the practice of using the Bible as a book for 
 exercising and improving the talent of children in 
 reading, a practice, which, I should hope, is quite 
 extinct at the present day. Indeed, he looks with 
 disfavour on the practice of using the Bible as a 
 text- book at all. 
 
 * There are some parts of Scripture,' he says, 
 * which may be proper to be put into the hands 
 of a child to engage him to read, such as are the 
 story of Joseph and his brethren, of David and 
 Goliath, of David and Jonathan, &c., and others 
 that he should be made to read for his instruction, 
 as that, " What you would have others do unto 
 you, do you the same unto them," and such other 
 
48 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 easy and plain moral rules which, being fitly 
 chosen, might often be made use of, both for 
 reading and instruction together, and so often 
 read till they are thoroughly fixed in the memory; 
 and these afterwards, as he grows ripe for them, 
 may in their turns, on fit occasions, be inculcated 
 as the standing and sacred rules of his life and 
 actions. But the reading of the whole Scripture 
 indifferently, is what, I think, is very inconvenient 
 for children, till after having been made ac- 
 quainted with the plainest fundamental parts of 
 it, they have got some kind of general view of 
 what they ought principally to believe and 
 practise.' (p. 240.) 
 
 He is accordingly in favour of a text-book, 
 containing a summary of Bible history : ' To 
 this purpose I conclude, it would be well if 
 there were made a good history of the Bible for 
 young people to read ; wherein, if everything that 
 is fit to be put into it, were laid down in its due 
 order of time, and several things omitted, which 
 are suited only to riper age, that confusion, which 
 is usually produced by promiscuous reading of 
 the Scripture as it lies now bound up in our 
 Bibles, would be avoided/ (p. 298.) 
 
 These recommendations are very judicious, and 
 are generally carried out in the Bible teaching 
 pursued in most schools at the present day. 
 
DUGALD STEWART ON THE " THOUGHTS* 
 
 49 
 
 Locke's book contains suggestions on the learning 
 of other branches of knowledge, but I have taken 
 up those that are more immediately interesting 
 to the elementary teacher, who, if he wish to pur- 
 sue the subject further, may very profitably peruse 
 the book for himself ; and I now finish this chap- 
 ter by quoting a few appropriate sentences from 
 a Scotch philosopher, whose name has already 
 appeared in these pages. ' It has often been 
 remarked/ he says, 'that Locke's "Thoughts" 
 display less originality than might have been 
 expected from so bold and powerful a thinker ; 
 but it ought to be remembered that, on the 
 most important points discussed in them, new 
 suggestions are not now to be looked for, and 
 that the great object of the reader should be, 
 not to learn something which he never heard 
 of before, but to learn among the multiplicity 
 of discordant precepts current in the world, 
 which of them were sanctioned, and which re- 
 probated by the judgment of Locke. < The candid 
 and unreserved thoughts of such a writer upon 
 such subjects as education, and the culture of the 
 intellectual powers, possess an intrinsic value 
 which is not diminished by the consideration of 
 their triteness. They not only serve to illustrate 
 the peculiarities of the author's own character and 
 views ; but, considered in a practical light, come 
 
50 JOHN LOCKE. 
 
 recommended to us by all the additional weight 
 of his discriminating experience.'* 
 
 Locke's health, as I have stated before, was all 
 through life very delicate, and required his con- 
 stant care. Symptoms of the disease (asthma) 
 of which he died appeared as early as 1671. 
 During the last years of his life, increasing in- 
 firmities confined him to the retirement he had 
 chosen at Gates, in Essex, where he occupied 
 his time in literary occupations, congenial to his 
 taste, chiefly in studying and in writing com- 
 mentaries on St. Paul's Epistles. In 1704, his 
 disorder greatly increased, and, on the 28th 
 October, he died, as a Christian should die, 
 happy in the consciousness of a well spent life, 
 and yet more in the firm faith of the great truths 
 of the Gospel."f* 
 
 Locke's talents were of a versatile character, 
 his writings on Money, on Trade, and on the 
 principles of Government being equally well 
 known with his works on Psychology and Edu- 
 cation. Lord Campbell, in his " Lives of the 
 Chancellors," styles him ' the author of the 
 "Essay on the Human Understanding/' the 
 analyst of the Principles of Free Government, 
 the apostle of Toleration, the first intelligent 
 
 * " Collected Works of Dugald Stewart," vol. I, p. 245. 
 t King's " Life of Locke," vol. II, p. 46. 
 
TRAITS IN LOCKE'S CHARACTER. 
 
 5 x 
 
 advocate of useful Education, the founder of 
 Free Trade in England/* 
 
 From the following traits in his character, re- 
 corded by Lord King, the young teacher may 
 derive two useful hints. 
 
 ' He knew something of almost everything 
 which can be useful to mankind, and was 
 thoroughly master of all that he had studied ; 
 but he showed his superiority by not appearing 
 to value himself in any way on account of his 
 great attainments. 
 
 ' He felt pleasure in conversing with all sorts of 
 people, and tried to profit by their information, / 
 which arose not only from the good education he Jx* 
 had received, but from the opinion he entertained, V 
 that there was nobody from whom something ) 
 useful could not be got.'-f* 
 
 * Vol. VI, p. 69. t Vol. II, pp. 54, 55- 
 
 '^/ 
 
HENRY PESTALOZZI. 
 
 Early Life and Character Studies first for the Church, then for 
 the Law, at last decides on Farming Marriage Converts 
 his Farm into an Industrial School Result of the experiment 
 7"akes to Writing Books on Education Volunteers to teach 
 the Orphans of Stanz Invents the Simultaneous and Moni- 
 torial Systems Object Lessons Lessons on Form, Number, 
 and Language Arithmetic On Teaching Geography His 
 Practice and his Theories Influence of his Teaching on 
 English Education His Character. 
 
 EVERY young teacher is desirous to hear some- 
 thing of Pestalozzi, who is, without question, one 
 of the most remarkable schoolmasters on record. 
 Who has not heard of Pestalozzian schools, and 
 Pestalozzian lessons, and in what comprehensive 
 treatise on education does the name of Pestalozzi 
 not appear ? The young schoolmaster's curiosity 
 on this subject should by all means be gratified, 
 as Pestalozzi's life is one that is especially 
 attractive to youthful minds, still fresh, ardent, 
 and enthusiastic ; and it presents a glorious 
 example of self-sacrifice, of which, as it occurs 
 
HIS BIR7H. 
 
 S3 
 
 within their own profession, teachers should be 
 especially proud. It is a life which at the same 
 time gives warning by its mistakes and failings, a 
 life which stands forth as a beacon over the rocks 
 on which Pestalozzi himself made shipwreck. 
 Happily the beacon shines with a bright and 
 clear light, for numerous books have been writ- 
 ten about him, and he himself has left valu- 
 able information regarding his system in his 
 own writings. Indeed, Pestalozzi's system and 
 methods of teaching are best ascertained from 
 his books, for it is generally acknowledged that 
 he did more for education by his writings than 
 by his personal work as a teacher. His personal 
 work, however, is deeply interesting ; but in read- 
 'ing an account of it the student should be pre- 
 pared rather to hear a pleasant though some- 
 what sad story than to find the narrative full 
 of professional hints. To the experienced 
 teacher, likewise, the life may prove interest" 
 ing ; because, in studying it, he sees a work- 
 man struggling on without proper tools 
 observes the exercise of his own craft in its 
 rudest beginnings. 
 
 Henry Pestalozzi was a Swiss, having been 
 born at Zurich in 1746. His ancestors were of 
 Italian extraction, who, being Protestants, were 
 obliged, during the troubled period of the Refor- 
 
54 
 
 HENRY PESTALOZZL 
 
 mation, to take refuge in Switzerland, and had 
 chosen for their abode a city marked for its 
 attachment to their faith.* 
 
 Pestalozzi had the misfortune to lose his father 
 when he was only six years old, which deprived 
 him of the usual fatherly and manly influences 
 brought to bear on a boy's education. ( I was 
 brought up/ he relates, 'by the best of mothers, 
 like a spoiled child. I never left the domestic 
 hearth from one year to another.'-}- He thus 
 became, in every sense, a ' mother's child ' a 
 term which appropriately pictures to us the affec- 
 tionate, home-loving, sensitive, almost womanly 
 nature of the man. The love thus imbibed from 
 his mother's precepts and practice became a 
 moving spring in his life ; his veneration for 
 mothers, and his regard for the domestic hearth, 
 which shine so conspicuously in his works, may 
 both be traced to its influence. The influence of 
 a female servant, too, named Barbara, to whom 
 Pestalozzi's father, with his dying breath, com- 
 mended his widow and family, must not be for- 
 gotten. The fidelity and devotedness with which 
 she discharged the office she undertook, and the 
 frugality and prudence which she displayed 
 throughout, impressed on the tender mind of 
 
 * " Memoir of Pestalozzi," by Dr. Mayo. 
 
 t Raumer's " Pestalozzi," translated by Tilleard, p. i. 
 
HIS EARL Y HISTOR Y. 55 
 
 Pestalozzi that strong sense of the virtues of the 
 lower orders, that respect and love for the poor, 
 which marked his character, and exercised so 
 powerful an influence on his life. Thus brought 
 up, he saw the world only within the narrow 
 limits of his mother's parlour, and within the 
 equally narrow limits of his schoolroom, being 
 almost a stranger to the human life of the world 
 around him. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, * 
 that his character was deficient in many qualities 
 which are necessary for success in life. Intensely 
 human and humane, sympathetic and benevolent, 
 he was at the same time singularly unpractical 
 and indiscreet, and deficient in calm circumspec- 
 tion and foresight. An anecdote is related which 
 portrays this indiscretion in an almost amusing 
 light. In the darkest period of his career, when 
 his family was without the necessaries of life, he 
 went to a friend's house to borrow a little money ; 
 and on his return, chancing to meet a peasant, 
 who was bewailing the loss of a cow, Pestalozzi 
 thrust the borrowed money into the poor man's 
 hand, and ran off to escape his thanks. Testi- 
 mony to the same effect is afforded by a remark 
 of Lavater's one of Pestalozzi's most intimate 
 friends. ' If I were a prince,' he said, ' I would 
 consult Pestalozzi in everything that concerns the 
 people and the improvement of their condition, 
 
56 HENR Y PESTALOZZI. 
 
 but I would never trust him with a farthing of 
 money.' (Raumer, p. 16.) 
 
 Pestalozzi received a tolerable education, in a 
 country celebrated for the facility of attaining it. 
 Of his school days he relates, that in all boys' 
 games he was clumsy and helpless; his play- 
 mates, who saw only the outside of the boy, 
 nicknaming him ' Harry Oddity, of Foolstown.' 
 While he generally seized with quickness and 
 accuracy on the essential matter of the various 
 subjects of instruction, he was very generally 
 indifferent and thoughtless as to the forms in 
 which it was given. At the same time, while 
 he was behind his fellows in some parts of a 
 subject, in other parts he often surpassed them 
 in an unusual degree. He also frankly confesses 
 that his mind had a liking for many branches 
 of knowledge, while he neglected the means of 
 acquiring them, or acquiring them in a sufficiently 
 accurate way traits which foreshadowed his 
 subsequent career. 
 
 From his maternal grandfather, who was pastor 
 of a country village, and with whom he used to 
 reside several months every year, Pestalozzi re- 
 ceived deep and lasting religious impressions, and 
 also an inclination for the clerical profession, to 
 which his thoughts were in the first instance 
 directed. But his want of accuracy and charac- 
 
HIS DESIRE TO BE USEFUL. 
 
 57 
 
 teristic carelessness interfered with this intention. 
 He broke down more than once in his trial ser- 
 mon, was unable to repeat even the Lord's Prayer 
 correctly, and thus fell into the list of ' stickit ' 
 ministers. Undaunted by this failure, he took to 
 the study of law, towards which he was strongly 
 drawn by his innate 'hate of wrong and love of 
 right'; for Switzerland was at this time suffering 
 from internal dissensions, arising both from reli- 
 gious and political causes, the sight of which pro- 
 foundly affected Pestalozzi's mind, and made him 
 anxious to devote his life to their amelioration. 
 Indeed, from his earliest years, in common with 
 his schoolmates, he had had an irresistible desire 
 to do great deeds for his unhappy country, and 
 was induced by his teachers to keep before his 
 mind the watchwords of ' Independence, freedom, 
 self-sacrifice, and patriotism ' ; and we are not 
 unprepared to find that, when only a lad of fif- 
 teen, he had joined an association of youthful 
 enthusiasts, founded by Lavater, which had for 
 its object the impeachment of unworthy gover- 
 nors and ministers of religion. Fired with 
 visionary ideas, Pestalozzi believed that the study 
 of law would afford him, sooner or later, oppor- 
 tunities of exercising an active influence on the 
 civil condition of his native town, and even of 
 his native land. But, alas ! for the young man's 
 
5 8 HENR Y FESTAL OZZL 
 
 ambition, excitement and hard study told upon 
 his health, and he became dangerously ill. His 
 doctor advised him to give up his pursuits for a 
 time, and to seek recreation in the country. He 
 followed the advice most literally, burnt his 
 manuscripts, and betook himself to farming. The 
 person, under whom he placed himself for agri- 
 cultural training, was a man of skill and ingenuity, 
 who had devised a plan of his own for the suc- 
 cessful cultivation of madder, which was at that 
 moment attracting public attention. Before he 
 had been many months under training, Pestalozzi, 
 with characteristic haste and inexperience, con- 
 ceived the project of carrying out experiments 
 upon madder on his own account ; and, with this 
 object in view, he induced a rich commercial firm 
 in Zurich to join him in purchasing a hundred 
 acres of barren heath land, near the village of 
 Birr. On this ground Pestalozzi ordered a hand- 
 some house to be built, giving the whole estate 
 the name of Neuhof (New Farm). This was in 
 1767, when he was twenty-one years of age ; and 
 we are not surprised to know that he was then 
 passing through a common phase of youthful ex- 
 perience. He was in love, and with the daughter 
 of a wealthy merchant in Zurich. To this lady 
 (Anna Schulthess) he wrote a letter (one of some 
 hundreds, we may be sure), which has been fortu- 
 
LETTER TO HIS LADY-LOVE. 
 
 59 
 
 nate enough to secure attention from every 
 biographer. To do it justice, it is a noteworthy 
 production, as it gives considerable insight into 
 the workings of his heart, and even affords 
 a glimpse into his future life. The following are 
 a few of the most remarkable passages : 
 
 'My dear and only friend, those of my faults, 
 which appear to me most important in relation to 
 the situation in which I may be placed in after- 
 life, are, improvidence, incautiousness, and a want 
 of presence of mind to meet unexpected changes 
 in my prospects. I know not how far these 
 failings may be diminished by my efforts to 
 counteract them by calm judgment and experience. 
 At present, I have them still in such a degree 
 that I dare not conceal them from the maiden I 
 love ; they are faults, my dear, which deserve 
 your fullest 'consideration. I have other faults, 
 arising from my irritability and sensitiveness, 
 which oftentimes will not submit to my judgment. 
 I very frequently allow myself to run into excesses 
 in praising and blaming, in my likings and dis- 
 likings ; I cleave so strongly to many things 
 which I possess, that the force with which I feel 
 myself attached to them often exceeds the bounds 
 of reason. Whenever my country or my friend is 
 unhappy, I am myself unhappy. Direct your 
 attention to this weakness. There will be times 
 
60 HENRY PESTALOZZI. 
 
 when the cheerfulness and tranquillity of my soul 
 will suffer under it. If even it does not hinder 
 me in the discharge of my duties, yet I shall 
 scarcely ever be great enough to fulfil them in 
 such adverse circumstances with the cheerfulness 
 and tranquillity of a wise man who is ever true 
 to himself. Of my great and, indeed, very repre- 
 hensible negligence in all matters of etiquette, and 
 generally in all matters which are not in them- 
 selves of importance, I need not speak ; any one 
 may see them at first sight of me. I also owe 
 you the open confession, my dear, that I 
 shall always consider my duties towards 
 my beloved partner subordinate to my duties 
 towards my country ; and that, although I 
 shall be the tenderest husband, nevertheless I 
 hold myself bound to be inexorable to the tears 
 of my wife if she should ever attempt to restrain 
 me by them from the direct performance of my 
 duties as a citizen, whatever this might lead to. 
 My wife shall be the confidante of my heart, the 
 partner of all my secret counsels. A great and 
 honest simplicity shall reign in my house. And 
 one thing more. My life will not pass without 
 important and very critical undertakings. I shall 
 not forget the precepts of Menalk, and my first 
 resolutions to devote myself wholly to my 
 country. I shall never, from fear of man, refrain 
 
HIS MARRIA GE. 6 r 
 
 from speaking when I see that the good of 
 my country calls upon me to speak. My 
 whole heart is my country's. I will risk all 
 to alleviate the need and misery of my fel- 
 low-countrymen. What consequences may the 
 undertakings to which I feel myself urged on 
 draw after them ! how unequal to them am 
 I ! and how imperative is my duty to shew you 
 the possibility of the great dangers which they 
 may bring upon me.' (Raumer, pp. 6, 7.) The 
 young lady, beautiful and rich as she was (while 
 Pestalozzi was neither), proved worthy of his 
 trust. They were married in 1769, and till the 
 date of her death in 1815, she continued to prove, 
 in the language of Scripture, a 'helpmeet' to 
 him. It was not long, however, till troubles came 
 upon the youthful couple. Pestalozzi's attempt 
 to cultivate madder proved a failure, solely, as he 
 himself confesses, on account of his incapacity for 
 every kind of undertaking which required prac- 
 tical wisdom and tact. The Zurich firm became 
 alarmed, and withdrew its money. Thus left to 
 his own resources, he conceived the idea of con- 
 verting his farm into a model industrial school 
 for poor children, one of the boldest undertak- 
 ings in the annals of private life. * The idea 
 of such a school is now familiar to us ; it was then 
 *Biber's " Pestalozzi,' 7 p. 14. 
 
62 HENRY PESTALOZZL 
 
 new. The proposal met with approval from many 
 philanthropic and influential persons, and the 
 school was opened in 1775. Before long there 
 were fifty pupils in attendance, literally gathered 
 from the highways. In summer, the children 
 were chiefly employed in field work ; in winter, 
 in spinning, and other handicrafts Pestalozzi 
 meanwhile carrying on their education. Now 
 was realized in part his youthful dream of 
 improving the condition of the poor. Brought 
 into immediate contact with these wretched 
 paupers, he strove to train them to habits of 
 industry, as well as to give them instruction. For 
 five long years he devoted his whole time and 
 energy to this work, endeavouring to teach these 
 children that, while labour was their lot and their 
 duty, their first and most important employment, 
 intellectual pursuits might be the privilege of their 
 leisure hours. It was a noble and Christian- 
 minded attempt, and we honour the hero who 
 conceived and carried it out ; but we need not 
 wonder that it failed for want of funds. The 
 children in many cases behaved badly, running 
 away, in several instances, as soon as they had 
 been provided with a suit of clothes. ' Before I 
 was aware of it,' says Pestalozzi, ' I was deeply 
 involved in debt, and the greater part of my dear 
 wife's property and expectations had in an in- 
 
AN EDUCA TIONAL FAILURE. 63 
 
 stant, as it were, gone up in smoke/ In a 
 letter to a friend, written twenty years afterwards, 
 he gives the following interesting account of his 
 experiences : * I lived for years together in a 
 circle of more than fifty pauper children ; in 
 poverty did I share my bread with them, and 
 lived myself like a pauper, to try if I could teach 
 paupers to live as men. The plan which I had 
 formed for their education embraced agriculture, 
 manufacture, and commerce. In no one of the 
 three departments did I possess any practical 
 ability for the management of details, nor was 
 my mind of a cast to keep up persevering atten- 
 tion to little things; and in an insulated position, 
 with limited means, I was unable to procure such 
 assistance as might have made up for my own 
 deficiencies. In a short time I was surrounded 
 with embarrassments, and saw the great object of 
 my wishes defeated. In the struggle, however, in 
 which this attempt involved me, I had learned a 
 vast deal of truth, and I was never more fully 
 convinced of the importance of my views and 
 plans than at the moment when they seemed to 
 be for ever set at rest by a total failure/ 
 
 Pestalozzi's labours were not lost. More than 
 a hundred children were rescued from ignorance 
 and degradation ; and Pestalozzi was supplied 
 with a rich store of experience, that was of the 
 
6 4 
 
 HENRY PESTALOZZL 
 
 greatest service to him in his future plans and 
 operations. His attempt also suggested to others 
 the idea of starting similar institutions, both on 
 the Continent and in this country. It was 
 Pestalozzi's school that suggested to De Fellen- 
 berg the one which he established on his estate 
 of Hofwyl, near Berne, and which, under skilful 
 management, succeeded in realizing Pestalozzi's 
 idea. His grateful countrymen could not have 
 raised any memorial to him more appropriate 
 than the Orphan School which they founded at 
 Olsberg, in Aargau, after the celebration of his 
 centenary birthday in 1846. If such establish- 
 ments are, even at the present day, not successful 
 in a pecuniary point of view, and require State 
 aid and voluntary contributions, it should make 
 us judge more leniently the failure of the man 
 who grappled with the difficulties of the task for 
 the first time. 
 
 In 1780, Pestalozzi was obliged to break up 
 the establishment at Neuhof. His situation was 
 distressing; his family, as related in the foregoing 
 anecdote, were on the point of starvation ; his 
 wife fell into a severe and tedious illness, during 
 which shall we imagine that she pondered over 
 the substance of the famous love-letter, and wept ? 
 His friends, at all events, declared that he was a 
 lost man, and that nothing further could be done 
 
HIS FIRST PUB LIC A TION. 65 
 
 for him. For eighteen years after,* he did 
 not engage in any educational undertaking 
 eighteen gloomy years, during which he struggled 
 with difficulties without, and with doubt and des- 
 pondency within. 'My head was grey/ he 
 exclaims, ' but I was still a child.' And his 
 child-like nature found scope in writing down his 
 ideas in books ; and it is from them, as I have 
 said, more than from his personal teaching, that 
 we judge of him as an educationist. His first 
 publication was called "The Evening Hour of 
 a Hermit," a series of educational aphorisms, very 
 similar in its scope to the " Didactica Magna " of 
 Comenius, and in the calm thoughts of which 
 there is no trace of the disturbed state of the 
 author's mind. The following is a brief, yet suf- 
 ficiently distinctive, extract : 
 
 ' What man is, what he needs, what elevates 
 him and degrades him, what strengthens him and 
 weakens him, such is the knowledge needed 
 both by shepherds of the people and by the 
 inmate of the most lowly hut. 
 
 ' Everywhere humanity feels this want. Every- 
 where it struggles to satisfy it with labour and 
 earnestness. For the want of it men live restless 
 
 * See Morf 's " Zur Biographic Pestalozzi's " for many 
 touching passages from diaries and letters, shewing the 
 inner life of the man during this painful period. 
 
 E 
 
66 HENRY PESTALOZZL 
 
 lives, and at death they cry aloud that they have 
 not fulfilled the purposes of their being. Their 
 end is not the ripening of the perfect fruits of the 
 year, which, in full completion, are laid away for 
 the repose of the winter. . . . 
 
 ' The powers of conferring blessings on humanity 
 are not a gift of art or of accident. They exist 
 with their fundamental principles in the inmost 
 nature of all men. Their development is the uni- 
 versal need of humanity. 
 
 ' Central point of life, individual destiny of 
 man, thou art the book of nature. In thee lieth 
 the power and the plan of that wise teacher ; and 
 every school education not erected upon the prin- 
 ciples of human development leads astray. 
 
 ' The happy infant learns by this road what his 
 -mother is to him ; and thus grows within him the 
 .actual sentiment of love and gratitude, before he 
 can understand the words duty or thanks. . . . 
 The truth, which rises from our inmost being 
 is universal human truth, and would serve as a 
 truth for the reconciliation of those who are 
 quarrelling by thousands over its husks. 
 
 ' Man, it is thyself, the inner consciousness of 
 thy powers, which is the object of the education of 
 nature. 
 
 1 The general elevation of these inward powers 
 of the human mind, to a pure human wisdom, is 
 
EXTRACTS. 
 
 67 
 
 the universal purpose of the education even of the 
 lowest man. The practice, application, and use 
 of these powers and this wisdom under special 
 circumstances and conditions of humanity, is 
 education for a professional or social condition. 
 These must always be kept subordinate to the 
 general object of human training. . . . Nature 
 develops all the human faculties by practice, and 
 their growth depends upon their exercise. . . . 
 Men, fathers, force not the faculties of your 
 children into paths too distant, before they have 
 attained strength by exercise, and avoid harsh- 
 ness and over fatigue. . . . You leave the 
 right order when, before making them sensitive 
 to truth and wisdom by the real knowledge of 
 actual objects, you engage them in the thousand- 
 fold confusions of word learning and opinions, and 
 lay the foundation of their mental character, and 
 of the first determination of their powers, not with 
 truth and actual obligations, but with sounds, and 
 speech, and words. . . . And the source of 
 justice and of all blessing for the world, the source 
 of love and brotherly feeling among men, rests on 
 the great thought of religion that we are children 
 of God, and that belief of this truth is the sure 
 ground of all blessing for the world. . . . 
 That men have lost the disposition of children 
 towards God is the greatest misfortune of the 
 
68 HENRY PESTALOZZL 
 
 world, inasmuch as it renders impossible all God's 
 fatherly education of them ; and the restoring of 
 this lost childlike disposition is the redemption 
 of the lost children of God upon earth/ * 
 
 The " Evening Hour" may be likened to the 
 rough draft of the architect, or, to take a different 
 simile, it is the outline or skeleton round whose 
 bones Pestalozzi strove to create living flesh and 
 blood, in his future writings and imperfect 
 practice. Each aphorism is a text for a dis- 
 course, and his life is, as it were, a series of 
 attempts to put his own preaching into practice. 
 To this educational programme he appealed 
 many years afterwards to prove that he had 
 always held the views which he struggled to 
 realise. 
 
 In 1781 was published " Leonard and Gertrude/' 
 the book on which his fame as an author chiefly 
 rests. It is an educational novel, containing an 
 admirable picture of village life in Switzerland, 
 and is perhaps his greatest work, as it is certainly 
 the one that has had the widest circulation and 
 influence. The principal character in the story is 
 Gertrude, whose manner of keeping her house and 
 training her children is Pestalozzi's ideal, and is 
 intended as a model for all housekeepers and 
 mothers. Gertrude is consulted even in the 
 * " Educational Reformers," pp. 310, 311 ; Morf, p. 320. 
 
"LEONARD AND GERTRUDE." 69 
 
 management of the village school, the re-organiz- 
 ation of which forms one of the chief matters of 
 interest. The following picture is given of the 
 schoolmaster, Gluelphi by name, who bases his 
 system of discipline on the practice of Gertrude 
 in the domestic circle. 
 
 1 Gluelphi was deeply impressed with the truth 
 that education is not imparted by words but by 
 facts. For kindling the flame of love and devotion 
 in their souls, he trusted not to the hearing and 
 learning by heart of passages setting forth the 
 beauties of love and its blessings, but he endea- 
 voured to manifest to them a spirit of genuine 
 charity, and to encourage them to the practice of 
 it, both by example and precept. He led them 
 to live in love. He presented to their minds the 
 distresses and sufferings of others not of men 
 who had lived thousands of years before them, 
 and at thousands of miles' distance, but of those 
 who were near them whose tears they saw 
 flowing in whose emaciated countenances they 
 could themselves read the inscription of hunger 
 whose nakedness and helplessness made an im- 
 mediate appeal to their senses. By the sight of 
 misery, he endeavoured to excite commiseration 
 in the hearts of the children, and to lead them to 
 reflect on the causes of distress and suffering, and 
 on the means of alleviating them. He rendered 
 
70 HENR Y PESTALOZZI. 
 
 them attentive to the afflictions of their fellow- 
 creatures. If there was any one ill in the house 
 of any of the children, were it father or mother, or 
 brother or sister, or even the meanest servant, he 
 never failed to ask the child the moment he 
 entered the schoolroom, how the invalid did, and 
 the child had to give a detailed and accurate 
 account. Gluelphi did not take half answers on 
 these occasions, but was so particular in his 
 inquiries that, if the child had not asked the sick 
 person at home, he would at once betray his 
 ignorance, and be overwhelmed with such con- 
 fusion that he would certainly never leave home 
 again, without having informed himself on the 
 subject. The children were asked likewise, 
 whether they had spoken themselves to the 
 invalid, and whether they had contributed to 
 alleviate his sufferings, if it were only by avoiding 
 every noise and bustle in the house. Nor did he 
 ever omit the question, " Are you praying every 
 morning and every evening for your invalid, 
 that God may restore him to health ? " ' (Biber, 
 p. 142.) 
 
 Pestalozzi says that his object in writing 
 " Leonard and Gertrude," which flowed from his 
 pen he knew not how, was to bring about a better 
 education of the people, based on proper prin- 
 ciples. His heart bled at the sight of their 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. ji 
 
 ignorance and misery ; and looking around in 
 vain for a staff of schoolmasters who would teach 
 after his manner and in his spirit, and deploring 
 the want of institutions where such teachers 
 could be trained, he conceived the noble idea of 
 shewing how every mother might be the teacher 
 and the trainer of her own family. ' Eureka ! ' 
 he cried in the exultation of his heart, ' I will 
 place the education of the people in the hands of 
 the mothers ; I will transplant it out of the 
 school-room into the parlour.' Gertrude was 
 created as a model mother, and all mothers were 
 to seek to be like her. But how was this to be 
 effected ? How were the mothers in the lower 
 classes to be qualified for instructing ? Pestalozzi 
 anticipated this difficulty by drawing up a series 
 of compendiums for mothers, by following which 
 they were to be qualified for teaching their 
 children. They had only to keep strictly to 
 these books in the work of instruction ; and if 
 they did this, the mother of the most limited 
 capacity would be found to instruct just as well 
 as the most talented. Grand as this scheme of 
 universal instruction by mothers undoubtedly was, 
 we regret to find that Pestalozzi's compendiums 
 were most unsuitable for the purpose in view. 
 His principle, that a child should begin to learn, 
 first of all, what lies nearest to him, led him to 
 
72 HENRY PESTALOZZI. 
 
 the idea that no natural object lay nearer to a 
 child than its own body, and that therefore it 
 should begin by observing that. The " Book for 
 Mothers " accordingly describes the human frame, 
 with all its limbs and parts of limbs, down to the 
 minutest joints ; and the mother is to go through 
 the book, word for word, calling the child's 
 attention constantly to the parts of its own 
 body. Who, after this, can question the source 
 from which Jacotot drew one of his most famous 
 paradoxes ? " Anybody can teach, and, moreover, 
 he can teach that which he does not know." 
 Fancy what a gabbling of anatomical and phy- 
 siological terms there would be, day by day, in 
 this large city of ours, with its half a million 
 of inhabitants, if Pestalozzi's compendiums had 
 met with general adoption ! Ludicrous as the 
 thought may be, we must not forget that this 
 idea of his, the home instruction by mothers, is 
 one which every successful teacher takes ad- 
 vantage of; and in the mutual co-operation of 
 teachers and parents in the preparation of lessons 
 we have the happiest and best results. The 
 schoolmaster, to borrow a remark of Dr. Wiese's, 
 in his " Letters on English Education," shews 
 them the way to learn; at home they put the 
 precept into practice. 
 
 Equally inappropriate are the lessons on sound 
 
jLSSOWS ON SOUND. 73 
 
 which Pestalozzi recommends the mother to give 
 to her children. ' The spelling-book/ he says, 
 ' should contain the entire range of sounds of 
 which the language consists, and portions of it 
 should be repeated daily in every family, not only 
 by the child that is going through the exercises 
 to learn how to spell, but also by mothers within 
 hearing of the child in the cradle, in order that 
 these sounds may, by frequent repetition, be so 
 deeply impressed on the memory of the child, 
 even while it is yet unable to pronounce any 
 one of them, that they shall never be forgotten. 
 No one imagines to what a degree the attention 
 of infants is aroused by the repetition of such 
 simple sounds as ba, ba, ba ; da, da, da ; ma, ma, 
 ma ; la, la, la ; &c., or what a charm such repeti- 
 tion has for them.' 
 
 ' Such lessons/ says Raumer, ' are enough to 
 scare away the child's guardian angels.' 
 
 But however mistaken the suggestions of 
 Pestalozzi are, there* is, no doubt, truth in his 
 opinion that education should begin frori#>^fhe 
 cradle ; and, fortunately, as Herbert Spencer 
 observes, * the ordinary practice of the nursery 
 educates the child to some extent, though much 
 remains to be done.' * 
 
 Pestalozzi published other works of an educa- 
 * " Education," p. 82. 
 
74 
 
 HENRY PESTALOZZI. 
 
 tional and philosophical character which it is un- 
 necessary to notice here, and it was fortunate 
 that his enthusiasm and energy were called into 
 renewed action of an educational character by 
 events that arose out of the French Revolution. 
 The sound of war broke forth, and awoke him 
 from his literary dreams. A new epoch was at 
 hand for Switzerland, which the French invaders 
 elevated into a republic, christening it ' New Hel- 
 vetia.' Pestalozzi declared himself in favour of 
 the new order of things, and his pen was engaged 
 by the Directors. The result was not favourable 
 to his social advancement. He wrote in favour 
 of education as a means of elevating the people. 
 The Directors had no knowledge of the people, 
 and, caring nothing for their improvement, found 
 that he was not the man for them. Fortun- 
 ately a piece of service presented itself of a 
 congenial nature, which restored Pestalozzi to 
 himself. The Roman Catholic canton of Unter- 
 walden, the land of William Tell, having refused 
 to acknowledge the new constitution, was invaded 
 by the French, and its capital, Stanz, was pillaged 
 and burnt. A cry of grief arose from its widows 
 and orphan children, and the Swiss members of 
 the Directory, lamenting the calamity, hastened 
 to do something which might mitigate the impres- 
 sion which the news of the event could not fail to 
 
AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIMENT. 75 
 
 produce throughout the land. They proposed to 
 Pestalozzi that he should proceed to Stanz, and 
 take charge of the orphan and destitute children. 
 His heart leaped at the thought. Now was there 
 an opportunity afforded him of making an experi- 
 ment of his plan of national education. ' I went/ 
 he writes ; ' I would have gone into the remotest 
 cleft of the mountains to come nearer my aim, and 
 now I really did come nearer.' 
 
 But imagine his position. The school-room set 
 apart for him was the only habitable apartment 
 of an unfinished convent. Children, to the number 
 of eighty, came flocking in, many of them orphans, 
 and these ate and slept in school. Apparatus, 
 books, there were none. What could he do ? Let 
 my readers close their eyes and reflect what 
 they would .have done in the circumstances. 
 What Pestalozzi did will be best described in his 
 own words : 
 
 ' Alone, destitute of all means of instruction, and 
 of all other assistance, I united in my person the 
 offices of superintendent, paymaster, steward, and 
 sometimes chambermaid in a half-ruined house. 
 I was surrounded with ignorance, disease, and 
 with every kind of novelty. The number of chil- 
 dren rose by degrees ; all of different ages ; some 
 full of pretensions ; others trained to open beggary ; 
 and all, with a few solitary exceptions, entirely 
 
76 HENR Y FESTAL OZZL 
 
 ignorant. What a task ! to educate, to develop 
 these children ! What a task ! I ventured upon 
 it. I stood in the midst of them, pronouncing 
 various sounds, and asking the children to imitate 
 them. Whoever saw it was struck with the effect. 
 Being obliged to instruct the children by myself, 
 without any assistance, I learnt the art of teaching 
 a great number together ; and, as I had no other 
 means of bringing the instruction before them, 
 than that of pronouncing everything to them 
 loudly and distinctly, I was naturally led to the 
 idea of making them draw, write, and work all at 
 the same time. The confusion of so many voices 
 repeating my words, suggested the necessity of 
 keeping time in our exercises, and I soon found 
 that this contributed materially to make their 
 impressions stronger and more distinct. Their 
 total ignorance forced me to dwell a long time on 
 the simplest elements, and I was thus led to per- 
 ceive how much higher a degree of interest and 
 power is obtained by persevering attention to the 
 elementary parts, until they be perfectly familiar 
 to the mind ; and what confidence and interest 
 the child is inspired with, by the consciousness 
 of complete and perfect attainment, even in the 
 lowest stage of instruction. Never before had I 
 so deeply felt the important bearing, which the 
 first elements of every branch of knowledge have 
 
THE RESULT. 77 
 
 upon its complete outline, and what immense 
 deficiencies in the final result of education must 
 arise from the confusion and imperfections of the 
 simplest beginnings. To bring these to maturity 
 and perfection in the child's mind became, now, a 
 main object of my attention ; and the success far 
 surpassed my expectations. The consciousness of 
 energies hitherto unknown to themselves was 
 rapidly developed in the children, and a general 
 sense of order and harmony began to prevail 
 among them. They felt their own power, and the 
 tediousness of the common school vanished like a 
 spectre from the room. They were determined 
 to try ; they succeeded ; they persevered ; they 
 accomplished, and were delighted. Their mood 
 was not that of laborious learning, it was the joy 
 of unknown powers aroused from sleep ; their 
 hearts and minds were elevated by the anticipa- 
 tion of what these powers would enable them to 
 attempt and to effect/* 
 
 * The remarks in the above extract, in reference to the 
 ad vantage *of dwelling upon the elements, are so cogent, that 
 they attracted the attention of Dr. Gordon, H.M. Inspector 
 of Schools, before whom I read a lecture on Pestalozzi in 
 
 1868, and from his notice of them in his report to the 
 Committee of Council, they attracted the attention of their 
 Lordships, who, in their general report of the same year, 
 refer to them in support of their system of examination 
 contained in the Revised Code. See "Blue Book/' 1868- 
 
 1869, pp. xxv, 476. 
 
 >>0f THE 
 
7 8 
 
 HENRY PESTALOZZI. 
 
 This extract is from a well known book of his 
 entitled, " How Gertrude Teaches her Children." 
 Observe his adoption of the simultaneous system, 
 which had been made use of in the Austrian 
 schools before his time, and on which his 
 panegyrist, Dr. Biber, passes enthusiastic eulogy, 
 at the same time observing that it should be a 
 rule with the teacher never to employ this 
 means for bringing a new subject before his 
 pupils ; but to confine its use exclusively to 
 revision ; and adding that the simultaneous 
 repetition, whether in a musical form or not, of 
 addition, multiplication, pence, weight, and other 
 tables, so common in public charity schools, 
 far from forming a part of Pestalozzi's plan, is, 
 on the contrary, a mere caricature of it. 
 
 In another passage from " How Gertrude 
 Teaches her Children," we observe that Pestalozzi 
 also introduced at Stanz the monitorial system, 
 which, though quite original on his part, is as old 
 as Comenius. ' Children became the teachers of 
 children. They endeavoured to carry into effect 
 what I proposed ; and in doing so, they them- 
 selves frequently traced the means of execution. 
 Their spontaneous activity was called out in 
 every direction, as far as the elements of know- 
 ledge go ; and I was brought to the firm con- 
 viction, that all instruction, to have a truly 
 
THE MONITORIAL SYSTEM. 79 
 
 enlightening and cultivating influence, must be 
 drawn out of the children (Stow), and, as it were, 
 begotten within their minds. To this, also, I was 
 - brought chiefly by necessity. Seeing that I had 
 no assistant teachers, I placed a child of superior 
 capacities between two of inferior powers. He 
 threw his arms round their necks ; he taught 
 them what he knew, and they learned from him 
 what they knew not. They sat by the side of 
 each other with heart- felt affection. Joy and love 
 animated their souls ; the life which was awakened 
 within them, and which had taken hold of their 
 minds, carried both teachers and learners forward 
 with a rapidity and cheerfulness which this 
 process of mutual enlivening alone could pro- 
 duce.' (Biber, p. 169.) 
 
 In connection with this extract, Biber notices 
 a misunderstanding which had gone forth on the 
 subject of Pestalozzi's method, to the effect that 
 his mutual system is the same as that of Bell 
 and Lancaster. 
 
 ' Pestalozzi employed one child to teach another. 
 This is mutual instruction, no doubt. Bell and 
 Lancaster employed one child to teach another : 
 this, too, is mutual instruction ; but Pestalozzi 
 awakened in one child a consciousness of his 
 powers and a tendency to mental self-activity ; 
 and the child so awakened he called in to assist 
 
8o HENR Y FESTAL OZZI. 
 
 him in awakening other children in the same 
 manner and by the same means. Pestalozzi led 
 his children by the love which they bore him, by 
 the moral ascendency which he had gained over 
 them ; so that, whithersoever he led the way, 
 they were willing to follow ; and in the same 
 manner he taught his children to treat one 
 another. Bell and Lancaster, on the contrary, 
 drill one child through an artificial machinery of 
 lifeless tasks, and the child so drilled they 
 employ to drill others in the same manner and 
 by the same means. Bell and Lancaster restrain 
 their children by fear, and excite them by arti- 
 ficial and mercenary motives, that for hire's sake 
 the natures of the children may yield themselves 
 to the unnature of the system ; and the same 
 means of direct and indirect compulsion they 
 place in the hands of their subordinate drillers/ 
 (p. 170.) 
 
 Pestalozzi was unwearied, also, in inculcating 
 moral lessons to these neglected children. He 
 strove to promote mutual kindness and good 
 feeling among them, and to train them to the 
 practice of love and charity. Thus, when Altorf, 
 in a neighbouring canton, was laid in ashes, he 
 informed them of the event, and suggested that 
 they should receive some of the suffering children 
 into their own asylum. ' Hundreds of children/ 
 
TO HIS PUPILS HE WAS ALL IN ALL. 3 r 
 
 he told them, ' are now wandering about as you 
 were last year, without a home, perhaps without 
 food or clothing/ ' Oh yes, do send for them 
 to come here,' they all cried. Pestalozzi re- 
 minded them that such a step would entail 
 additional privations on themselves ; they should 
 have to share their bedding and their clothing 
 with them, and eat less and work more than 
 before. ' Never mind,' they cried ; ' though we 
 should be less well-off ourselves, we should be 
 very glad to have those poor children amongst 
 us/ (p. 37.) 
 
 ' In the midst of his children/ says Biber, ' he 
 forgot that there was any world besides the 
 asylum. And as their circle was a universe to 
 him, so he was to them all in all. From morning 
 to night he was the centre of their existence. To 
 him they owed every comfort and every enjoy- 
 ment ; and whatever hardships they had to 
 endure, he was their fellow-sufferer. He partook 
 of their meals, and slept among them. In the 
 evening he prayed with them, and from his con- 
 versation they dropped into the arms of slumber. 
 At the first dawn of day it was his voice that 
 called them to the light of the rising sun and to 
 the praise of their Heavenly Father. All day he 
 stood amongst them, teaching the ignorant and 
 assisting the helpless, encouraging the weak and 
 
32 HENRY PESTALOZZL 
 
 admonishing the transgressor. His hand was 
 daily with them joined in theirs ; his eye, beam- 
 ing with benevolence, rested on them. He wept 
 when they wept, and rejoiced when they rejoiced. 
 He was to them a father, and they were to him 
 as children/ 
 
 Another noteworthy feature of his teaching 
 at Stanz was the giving of object lessons, of 
 which he is the real originator. But these 
 lessons were of the rudest kind, their style being 
 pretty nearly the following. Suppose the lesson 
 for the day had been on a piece of sponge, 
 Pestalozzi, holding up the specimen before the 
 children, would sing out in a high monotone, 
 ' This is sponge/ requiring them to repeat the 
 sentence three times simultaneously. Then he 
 would proceed, ' Sponge is an animal product.' 
 
 * Sponge is amorphous/ ' Sponge is porous/ 
 
 * Sponge is absorbent/ And so on in the same 
 manner. Such lessons were obviously not cal- 
 culated to train the observing powers of the 
 children, but were rather, like the majority of 
 Pestalozzi's lessons, lessons in language merely. 
 Words, and not things or facts in science, were 
 all that the children could pick up and take 
 away, if indeed they did carry away anything at 
 all. The cause of this failure in carrying out his 
 own ideal is not far to seek. Pestalozzi himself 
 
HIS SYSTEM INTRODUCED INTO ENGLAND. 83 
 
 reveals it with the utmost candour. ' I never 
 pretended to teach any art or science,' he says ; 
 ' in fact, there is not one with which I am myself 
 acquainted.' 
 
 Pestalozzi's idea, however, was caught up by 
 his disciples, and in a great measure realized. To 
 Dr. Mayo belongs the credit of introducing object 
 lessons successfully into England, and his 
 " Lessons on Objects," now in the twentieth 
 edition, was the forerunner of a class of school 
 books which have been brought to much excel- 
 lence, in proof of which I need only name such 
 manuals as Ross's " How to Train Young Eyes 
 and Ears," Lake's " Object Lessons," Walkers 
 " Object Lessons," and Calkin's " New Primary 
 Object Lessons " (an American book), of which I 
 have had personal experience. That even with 
 these valuable aids, the giving of object lessons 
 is not properly understood, may be inferred 
 from the following remarks on them by the 
 late Professor Moseley, H.M. Inspector of 
 Schools : 
 
 ' A teacher proposing to give an oral lesson on 
 coal, for instance, holds a piece of it up before his 
 class, and having secured their attention, he pro- 
 bably asks them to which kingdom it belongs 
 animal, vegetable, or mineral a question in no 
 case of much importance, and to be answered, in 
 
84 HENR Y FESTAL OZZI. 
 
 the case of coal, doubtfully. Having, however, 
 extracted that answer which he intends to get 
 from the children, he induces them by many 
 ingenious devices, much circumlocution, and an ex- 
 travagant expenditure of the time of the school, 
 to say that it is a solid, that it is heavy, that it is 
 opaque, that it is black, that it is friable, and that 
 it is combustible. And then the time has probably 
 expired, and the lesson on the science of common 
 things, assumed to be so useful to a child, is 
 completed. 
 
 ' In such a lesson, the teacher affords evidence 
 of no other knowledge of the particular thing that 
 was the subject of it, than the children might be 
 supposed to have known before the lesson began. 
 He gives it easily, because the form is the same 
 for every lesson ; the blanks having only to be 
 differently filled up every time it is repeated. All 
 that it is adapted for is to teach them the mean- 
 ings of some unusual words words useless to 
 them, because they apply to abstract ideas, and 
 which, as the type of all such lessons is the same, 
 he has probably often taught them before. 
 
 ' He has shewn some knowledge of words, but 
 none of things. Of the particular thing called 
 coal, as distinguished from any other thing, he 
 knows nothing more than the child ; but only of 
 certain properties common to it, and almost every- 
 
OBJECT LESSONS. gc 
 
 thing else, and of certain words useless to poor 
 children, which describe those properties : coal is 
 a common thing to a child, one with which its 
 daily observation is familiar, intimately connected 
 with the uses of its life a substance about which 
 it might be taught many things which would 
 probably be of great use to it in after life things 
 which it would not be likely ever to know, unless 
 it were so taught them. But they are not these 
 things ; and if the science of common things is to 
 be so taught, as to be of any future use to the 
 child, it must not be this science.' * 
 
 ' It may be proper to remark that the original 
 Pestalozzian object lessons are not fairly charge- 
 ^ble with the folly of teaching children long 
 adjectives of foreign extraction, as the names of 
 the qualities of the objects. This is an additional 
 error, into which English teachers have been led 
 by the mixed character of our language. In the 
 German, which is a primitive language, the words 
 denoting the qualities of the objects are either 
 simple words in the language, or are formed from 
 such, and are therefore readily understood by the 
 German children.' (Tilleard, p. 56.) 
 
 Pestalozzi divided his own object lessons into 
 three classes. (i) Those on Form ; (2) on Num- 
 ber ; (3) on Speech ; and as we learn from 
 * " Minutes of Council, 7 ' 1853. 
 
86 HENR Y FESTAL OZZL 
 
 perusing " How Gertrude teaches her Children," 
 his great object in giving these lessons was to 
 cultivate the observing powers of the children 
 from the earliest stage of education, a principle on 
 which he seems to hold quite as clear views as our 
 latest educationist, Herbert Spencer ; indeed, the 
 latter goes the length of stating that, " the realiza- 
 tion of the Pestalozzian idea remains to be 
 achieved." The following is an interesting ex- 
 tract from the book referred to. 
 
 ' Whatever man may attempt to do by his 
 tuition, he can, at best, do no more than assist 
 the child's nature in the effort which it makes for 
 its. own development ; and to do this, so that the 
 impression made upon the child may always be 
 commensurate to, and in harmony with, the 
 measure and character of the powers already 
 unfolded in him, is the great secret of education. 
 The perceptions to which the child is to be 
 led by his instructor must therefore neces- 
 sarily be subjected to a certain order of 
 succession, the beginning of which must be 
 adapted to the very first unfolding of the child's 
 powers, and its progress kept exactly parallel 
 with that of the child's own development. 
 
 ' This much I saw clearly, that the child may 
 be brought to a high degree of knowledge, 
 both of things and of language, before it would be 
 
EXPERIMENTS. 87 
 
 rational to teach him reading or even spelling ; 
 and seeing this, I felt the necessity of leading 
 children from their earliest infancy to a rational 
 view of all things by presenting them in a manner 
 calculated to draw forth the action of the different 
 faculties upon every object. . . . Experience 
 confirmed me in this notion ! A mother, full of 
 interest for the education of her child, entrusted 
 me with the instruction of her little boy, then 
 hardly three years of age. I saw him for some 
 time, an hour every day ; and with him too, I was 
 merely, as it, were, feeling the pulse of the method. 
 I tried to convert letters, figures, and whatever 
 else was at hand, into means of instruction ; that is 
 to say, I led him to form, concerning every object, 
 distinct notions, and to express these notions 
 clearly in language. - I made him state positively 
 what he knew of every object, its colour, its parts, 
 its position, its shape, its number. Very soon I 
 was obliged to lay aside the alphabet, that first 
 torment of youth ; he felt no interest in these 
 dead signs ; he would have nothing but things, or 
 pictures of things ; and in a short time he was 
 enabled to express himself distinctly respecting 
 any objects within the sphere of his knowledge. 
 He gathered general information from the street, 
 from ; the garden, and from the house, and upon 
 the basis of clear and self-acquired notions, he 
 
88 HENR Y PESTALOZZL 
 
 soon learned to pronounce correctly even the 
 most difficult names of plants and animals.' 
 (Biber, p. 174.) 
 
 The knowledge thus acquired by the child from 
 his own experience was styled by Pestalozzi 
 intuitive knowledge ; and perceiving the difficulty 
 of getting teachers to carry on this system of 
 lessons without help, he proceeded to draw up 
 a series of text books on the subject, by fol- 
 lowing which they should be enabled to produce 
 the results desired, a mistake similar to that 
 which he made in drawing up the " Mother's 
 Manual." In both experiments he quite justified 
 the remark made to himself, by a member of 
 the Executive Council of Berne, ' Vous voulez 
 mfaaniser r education? 
 
 Pestalozzi taught in Stanz from September 
 1798, till June of the following year, his labours 
 being brought to a close by the entry of French 
 troops into the town, and their taking possession 
 of the convent for the purposes of an hospital. 
 He let the children return to their friends, and 
 went into the Bernese Oberland to recruit his 
 exhausted strength, and where, on reflecting on the 
 ordeal he had just gone through, he was led to 
 exclaim, ' It is a wonder I am still alive.' In the 
 course of the year he returned, quite recruited in 
 health, and obtained leave to teach in the elemen- 
 
HIS TEA CHING A T BURGDORF. 89 
 
 tary schools of Burgdorf, in the Canton Berne. 
 In a short time the head master became jealous 
 of him, and injurious reports were circulated in 
 reference to his capacity. ' It was whispered/ he 
 tells us, ' that I could not write, nor work accounts, 
 nor even read properly/ and he adds, with 
 amusing ingenuousness, ' popular reports are not 
 always entirely devoid of truth ; it is true that I 
 could not write, nor read, nor work accounts 
 well.' 
 
 The following account of his teaching in 
 Burgdorf, by one of his pupils, named Ramsauer, 
 is not altogether favourable : 
 
 ' I got about as much regular schooling as the 
 other scholars namely, none at all ; but his 
 (Pestalozzi's) sacred zeal, his devoted love, which 
 caused him to be entirely unmindful of himself ; 
 his serious and depressed state of mind, which 
 struck even the children, made the deepest im- 
 pression on me, and knit my child-like and grate- 
 ful heart to his for ever. 
 
 ' Pestalozzi's intention was that all the instruc- 
 tion given in this school should start from form, 
 number, and language, and should have a constant 
 reference to these elements. There was no regu- 
 lar plan in existence, neither was there a time- 
 table, for which reason Pestalozzi did not tie 
 himself down to any particular hours ; but 
 
90 HENR Y FESTAL OZZL 
 
 generally went on with the same subject for 
 two or three hours together. There were about 
 sixty of us, boys and girls, of ages varying from 
 eight to fifteen years ; the school hours were from 
 eight till eleven in the morning, and from two 
 to four in the afternoon. The instruction which 
 we received was entirely limited to drawing, 
 ciphering, and exercises in language. We 
 neither read nor wrote, and accordingly we had 
 neither reading nor writing books, nor were we 
 required to commit to memory anything secular 
 or sacred. 
 
 'For the drawing, we had neither copies to 
 draw from nor directions what to draw ; but only 
 crayons and boards ; and we were told to draw 
 what we liked during the time that Pestalozzi was 
 reading aloud sentences about natural history (as 
 exercises in language). But we did not know what 
 to draw, and so it happened that some drew men 
 and women, some houses, and others strings, 
 knots, and arabesques, or whatever else came into 
 their heads. Pestalozzi never looked to see what 
 we had drawn, or rather scribbled ; but the 
 clothes of all the scholars, especially the sleeves 
 and elbows, gave unmistakeable evidence that 
 they had been making due use of their crayons. 
 
 ' For the ciphering, we had between every two 
 scholars a small table pasted on millboard, on 
 
EXERCISES IN LANGUAGE. 9 1 
 
 which in quadrangular fields were marked dots, 
 which we had to count, to add together, to^ sub- 
 tract, to multiply and divide by one another. It 
 was out of these exercises that Kriisi and Buss 
 constructed, first, the unity table, and afterwards 
 the fraction tables. But, as Pestalozzi only 
 allowed the scholars to go over and to repeat the 
 exercises in their turns, and never questioned 
 them nor set them tasks, these exercises, 
 which were otherwise very good, remained 
 without any great utility. He had not 
 sufficient patience to allow things to be gone 
 over again, or to put questions ; and in his 
 enormous zeal for the instruction of the whole 
 school, he seemed not to concern himself in the 
 slightest degree for the individual scholar. 
 
 ' The best things we had with him were the 
 exercises in language, at least those which he 
 gave us on the paper-hangings of the school-room, 
 which were real exercises in observation. These 
 hangings were very old and a good deal torn, and 
 before these we had frequently to stand for two or 
 three hours together, and say what we observed 
 in respect to the form, number, position, and 
 colour of the figures painted on them, and the 
 holes torn in them, and to express what we 
 observed in sentences gradually increasing in 
 length. On such occasions, he would say, " Boys, 
 
92 HENR Y PESTALOZZI. 
 
 what do you see ? " (He never named the 
 girls.) 
 
 ' Answer. A hole (or rent) in the wainscot. 
 
 Pestalozzt. Very good. Now repeat after me 
 
 I see a hole in the wainscot. 
 
 I see a long hole in the wainscot. 
 
 Through the hole I see the wall. 
 
 Through the long narrow hole I see the wall. 
 
 Pestalozzt. Repeat after me : 
 
 I see figures on the paper hangings. 
 
 I see black figures on the paper hangings. 
 
 I see round black figures on the paper hangings. 
 
 I see a square yellow figure on the paper hangings. 
 
 Beside the square yellow figure, I see a black round 
 figure. 
 
 The square figure is joined to the round one by a thick 
 black stroke. 
 
 ' And so on. 
 
 ' Of less utility were those exercises in language 
 which he took from natural history, and in which 
 we had to repeat after him, and at the same time 
 to draw, as I have already mentioned. He would 
 say 
 
 'Amphibious Animals Crawling amphibious animals. 
 Creeping amphibious animals. 
 Monkeys Long-tailed monkeys. 
 
 Short-tailed monkeys. 
 
 ' And so on. 
 
 ' We did not understand a word of this, for not 
 a word was explained, arid it was all spoken in 
 
TEA CHING OF DRA WING. 
 
 93 
 
 sing-song tone, and so rapidly and indistinctly, 
 that it would have been a wonder if any one had 
 understood anything of it, and had learnt anything 
 from it ; besides, Pestalozzi cried out so dreadfully 
 loud and so continuously, that he could not hear 
 us repeat after him, the less so as he never waited 
 for us when he had read out a sentence, but 
 went on without intermission, and read off a 
 whole page at once. What he had thus read out 
 was drawn up on a half-sheet of large-sized mill- 
 board, and our repetition consisted for the most 
 part in saying the last word or syllable of each 
 phrase, thus, " monkeys, monkeys " ; or " keys, 
 keys." There was never any questioning or 
 recapitulation/ (Raumer, p. 36.) (How would 
 this satisfy H.M. Inspectors?) 
 
 Imperfect as is the mode of teaching drawing 
 related by Ramsauer, there is no doubt, from the 
 following extract from a letter of Pestalozzi's, that 
 he was fully alive to the educational value of the 
 subject. 
 
 'A person who is in the habit of drawing, 
 especially from nature, will easily perceive 
 many circumstances which are commonly over- 
 looked, and will form a much more correct 
 impression, even of such objects as he does 
 not stop to examine minutely, than one who 
 has never been taught to look upon what he 
 
4 HENRY PESTALOZZI. 
 
 sees with an intention of reproducing a likeness 
 of it. The attention to the exact shape of the 
 whole, and the proportion of the parts, which is 
 requisite for the taking of an adequate sketch, is 
 converted into a habit, and becomes productive 
 both of instruction and amusement.' * 
 
 Again, in reference to the lessons on number, 
 which, as represented by Ramsauer, must have 
 been most monotonous and without interest, it 
 * is necessary to bear in mind that Pestalozzi's 
 theory is quite different from his practice. He 
 based his arithmetical methods on the principle 
 that the child should acquire his knowledge from 
 the actual counting of things, and find out the 
 various rules experimentally. If the spirit of this 
 method is realized by the teacher, nothing can be 
 more important than the influence it has upon his 
 instruction in the subject. Treated in a practical 
 and common sense manner, arithmetic is invalu- 
 able as a mental discipline, and instead of being 
 a dry task, it is rendered an interesting exercise. 
 Base all your lessons in arithmetic, then, upon 
 things, concrete objects, peas, pens, pencils. 
 The numerical tables, mentioned by Ramsauer, 
 were superseded by the ball-frame, now in com- 
 V mon use. The earliest introduction of the 
 Pestalozzian arithmetic into Britain was into 
 * " Letters on Early Education," xxiv, p. 1 17. 
 
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 95 
 
 the Dublin model schools, by the Irish Com- 
 missioners, who published an edition of the 
 manual of exercises for the use of their teachers. 
 A somewhat modified form of their manual was 
 published in 1844, under the sanction of the Com- 
 mittee of Council on Education. That work was 
 superseded by Tate's " First Principles of Arith- 
 metic," a work which gave a more correct and 
 comprehensive application of Pestalozzi's prin- 
 ciples to the study of arithmetic, and which has 
 done much to improve the system of teaching the 
 subject in elementary schools. 
 
 Ramsauer adds to the interest of his narrative 
 by giving a pen and ink sketch of Pestalozzi's 
 personal appearance, which, as we learn from 
 other sources, was not prepossessing. Imagine a 
 little man with rugged face, his head well sunk 
 in between his shoulders, but his eye bright and 
 beaming, whose entire neglect of his person and 
 his dress, and all matters of etiquette, as his own 
 love letter confesses, increased his natural disad- 
 vantages, and you have a fair picture of Pestalozzi. 
 In reading the account of Ramsauer and others, 
 we take up the impression of a man who was 
 never to be seen without a flushed face and 
 excited look, who could do nothing calmly and 
 quietly. 'The first time that I was taken into 
 Pestalozzi's school,' he relates (being at that time 
 
9 6 
 
 HENRY PESTALOZZI. 
 
 ten years of age), ' he cordially welcomed and 
 kissed me with his strong prickly beard, and hav- 
 ing assigned me a place, he kept on reading out 
 sentences without halting for a moment. As I 
 did not understand a bit of what was going on, 
 when I heard the word " monkey, monkey," come 
 every time at the end of a sentence, and as 
 Pestalozzi, who was very ugly, ran about the 
 room as if he was wild, without a coat and with- 
 out a neckcloth, his long shirt sleeves hanging 
 down over his arms and hands, which swung 
 negligently about, I was seized with real terror, 
 and might soon have believed that he himself was 
 a monkey.' (Raumer, p. 38.) 
 
 In spite of his ungainly appearance, how- 
 ever, the personal influence of the man was very 
 great ; as there was a spirit and a power in his 
 very look which was quite irresistible. To this 
 fact Ramsauer strongly testifies 
 
 ' In Burgdorf, an active and entirely new mode 
 of life opened to me ; there reigned so much love 
 and simplicity in the institution ; the life was so 
 genial I could almost say patriarchal ; not 
 much was learned, it is true, but Pestalozzi was 
 the father, and the teachers were the friends of 
 the pupils ; his morning and evening prayers 
 had such a fervour and simplicity, that they 
 carried away every one who took part in them ; 
 
A NEW BOOK. 
 
 97 
 
 he prayed fervently, read and explained Gellert's 
 hymns impressively, exhorted each of the pupils 
 individually to private prayer, and saw that some 
 pupils said aloud in the bedrooms every evening 
 the prayers which they had learned at home, 
 while he explained at the same time that the 
 mere repeating of prayers by rote was worthless, 
 and that every one should rather pray from his 
 own heart/ 
 
 A pulmonary attack obliged Pestalozzi to give 
 up his appointment in the elementary school, and 
 after his recovery he founded an educational 
 institution in the Castle of Burgdorf, which was 
 opened in 1800. While there he wrote one of his 
 most celebrated works, " How Gertrude Teaches 
 her Children," from which I have already made 
 several quotations. The most remarkable prin- 
 ciples laid down in this book are the following : 
 (i) The foundation of teaching is shewing (de- 
 monstration). (2) In every branch, teaching 
 should begin with the simplest elements, and 
 should proceed from these by steps suited to 
 the child's development, observing in regard to 
 this the laws of psychology. (3) The teacher 
 should dwell on each point till the matter of 
 instruction becomes the free mental possession 
 of the pupil. (4) The acquisition of knowledge 
 and skill is not the chief end of elementary 
 
gg HENR* PESTALOZZL 
 
 teaching, but the development and strengthen- 
 ing of the mental powers. (5) The relation 
 between pupil and teacher, especially also the 
 school discipline, should be based on and be 
 regulated by love. (6) Teaching should keep 
 in view the purpose of education.* 
 
 Excellent as these principles are, we are pain- 
 fully aware that in many instances Pestalozzi 
 failed to carry them into practice. What could 
 be worse, for example, than the following ? ' Les- 
 sons in names/ he says, 'consist in giving the 
 children lists of the names of the most important 
 objects in all three kingdoms of nature, in history 
 and geography, and in the pursuits and relations 
 of mankind. These lists of words are placed in the 
 hands of the child merely as exercises in learning 
 to read, immediately after he has gone through 
 his spelling-book ; and experience has shewn me 
 that it is possible to make the children so thor- 
 oughly acquainted with these lists of words that 
 they shall be able to repeat them from memory, 
 merely in the time that is required to perfect 
 them in reading.' 
 
 It is not even hinted here that the children 
 
 ought to know the things named ; words, mere 
 
 %vords, are put in the place of observation. His 
 
 directions, again, for teaching geography would 
 
 * Morf, pp. 258-270. 
 
THE INSTITUTION AT BURGDORF. 
 
 99 
 
 resolve themselves, in the case of England, into 
 something like the following 
 
 'The child should first be made familiar with 
 its division into forty counties, with a number 
 attached to each county. After this the child is 
 to be supplied with an alphabetical list of the 
 towns in England, every town on the list having 
 beside it the number of the county to which it 
 belongs, e.g., Abergavenny, 16 ; Alnwick, 29, and 
 on these he is to be constantly exercised until he 
 is able to determine the place of all the towns in 
 England/ What could be more artificial and 
 unrealistic than this ? and, besides, there is not a 
 word said about maps. This reference may fitly 
 close my notice of this famous book, which 
 contains educational views of the highest value . / 
 and importance, side by side with the most glaring . 
 blunders and absurdities. 
 
 The institution at Burgdorf was visited by 
 numbers of people, who came even from a distance, 
 attracted by the perusal of this interesting book. 
 In 1802, the institution was recognized by Govern- 
 ment, and obtained a grant of money, and Pesta- 
 lozzi, now in the 'height of his fame, was elected 
 as a deputy to represent Switzerland at Paris. 
 While in the French capital it is related that, with 
 his usual enthusiasm, he put a memorandum on 
 the wants of Switzerland into the hands of 
 
IOO HENRY PESTALOZZL 
 
 Napoleon, then First Consul, but he paid as little 
 attention to it as he did to Pestalozzi's educational 
 efforts, declaring that he could not mix himself 
 up with the teaching of the ABC. His stay 
 was very brief. ' I have been in Paris, too/ he 
 used to say, ' but at night, and I did not see it.' 
 
 In consequence of political changes, Pestalozzi 
 was obliged to clear out of the Castle of Burgdorf 
 in 1804, and was offered instead the Monastery of 
 Buchsee, which was put into proper order for the 
 reception of his institution. Close by Buchsee 
 lay the estate of Hofwyl, where De Fellen- 
 berg resided ; and to him the teachers gave 
 the chief direction of affairs, 'not without my 
 consent/ says Pestalozzi, 'but to my profound 
 mortification/ As these two men may justly be 
 regarded as the originators of the modern educa- 
 tional movement in Europe, it may not be out of 
 place here to give a few points of resemblance 
 and of difference in their talents and characters. 
 Their efforts, as we know, took the same direction, 
 the amelioration of society, to which they both 
 devoted their lives. Experience had brought both 
 to the conclusion that this amelioration was to be 
 hoped for only from an improved and extended 
 education for all classes, particularly for the poor ; 
 and with this object in view, they each founded 
 and personally conducted educational institutions, 
 
PESTALOZZI AND FELLENBERG. IO I 
 
 which they intended to serve as models for 
 general imitation. They agreed in many of their 
 opinions on educational method, Fellenberg having 
 adopted several principles directly from Pestalozzi, 
 who was his senior by a quarter of a century. 
 They resembled each other also in possessing, in 
 a high degree, the qualities of enthusiasm, energy, 
 perseverance, and moral courage. They had each 
 to encounter much opposition, and to overcome 
 many difficulties ; but nothing could turn them 
 from their purpose, or abate their ardour. Here 
 the parallel ends, and the points of difference 
 begin. Pestalozzi was the greater man in that he 
 had genius, sensibility, and imagination, in addition 
 to the qualities which were common to both. His 
 literary works prove that he combined many of 
 the highest qualities of the philosopher and the 
 poet. Fellenberg, on the other hand, had no 
 literary powers, but he possessed a class of 
 qualities in which Pestalozzi was singularly de- 
 ficient, and which are indispensable to the success 
 of practical undertakings on a large scale. He 
 had a thoroughly disciplined mind, great firmness 
 of will, a sound judgment, remarkable sagacity, 
 keen powers of calculation, foresight, inventive 
 skill, governing tact in short, all the qualifica- 
 tions which constitute a successful administrator. 
 Thus it happened that while Pestalozzi's under- 
 
102 HENRY PESTALOZZL 
 
 takings frequently failed, Fellenberg's generally 
 succeeded. Pestalozzi brought ruin and misery 
 upon himself and his family ; Fellenberg enriched 
 himself. The life of Pestalozzi was sorely troubled 
 by unseemly contentions among his assistants ; 
 around Fellenberg everything worked harmoni- 
 ously. Pestalozzi often contradicted his theory 
 in attempting to apply it to practice ; with Fellen- 
 berg theory and practice always went hand in 
 hand. Pestalozzi allowed his enthusiasm and his 
 genial temper to lead him into all sorts of extra- 
 vagancies ; Fellenberg, though a man of strong 
 passions, rarely acted impulsively. This remark- 
 able dissimilarity between the two men was no 
 doubt owing, in a great measure, to a difference 
 in their natural endowment, but it was also the 
 result of a difference of education. Fellenberg 
 had enjoyed the counsel, control, and example of 
 a well educated father, who carefully trained him 
 for the duties of active life. Pestalozzi was early 
 deprived of the blessings of a father's influence, 
 which no other person can well supply. In the 
 stirring politics of the times in which they lived, 
 the two men took opposite sides Pestalozzi, 
 sprung from the middle classes, and indignant at 
 the harsh and oppressive rule of the aristocracy, 
 was an adherent of the reforming party, and wel- 
 comed the French Revolution ; Fellenberg, by 
 
FELLENBERG. 
 
 103 
 
 birth a member of the aristocracy, was one of the 
 most active in resisting the French invasion, and 
 had to flee for his life. He did not approve, 
 however, of the exclusive pretensions of his order, 
 whom he advised to win back the alienated affec- 
 tions of the peasantry by showing a noble zeal 
 for the safety of their country. The main difference 
 between the educational views of the two men was 
 this, Pestalozzi taught that the object of national 
 education should be to develop the mental and 
 moral faculties of every individual member of 
 society, without distinction of rank. This cultiva- 
 tion of the general intelligence of the children of 
 the nation, he maintained, should be the founda- 
 tion for the special education needed to qualify 
 them for any particular rank or pursuit. Fellen- 
 berg adopted this principle in the main, but held 
 that Pestalozzi carried it too far. He maintained 
 that the general culture should apply only to the 
 earliest period of a child's education, which should 
 be limited in its duration by the capacity and 
 circumstances in life of each individual ; and that 
 this preliminary training should be followed by 
 one chiefly devoted to the acquisition of such 
 positive knowledge as would fit him for the dis- 
 charge of his duties as a member of society. This 
 principle of adapting the education of the pupil to 
 the requirements of his probable station and 
 
104 
 
 HENRY PESTALOZZI. 
 
 occupation in after-life commends itself at once 
 to practical minds as a sound and important one ; 
 nor is it at all at variance with the Pestalozzian 
 principle of general development, for the teaching 
 of almost any branch of knowledge may be so 
 conducted as to have a highly educative influence 
 on the mind of the learner. This modification 
 has accordingly been adopted by the great 
 majority of Pestalozzi's followers in Germany and 
 elsewhere. * 
 
 It is not a matter of wonder, therefore, that 
 Pestalozzi accepted in 1805 a highly advantageous 
 proposal from the inhabitants of Yverdun, that he 
 should open an educational institution in their 
 town, and here it was that his fame reached its 
 highest point. Visitors were attracted from all 
 parts of Europe, and schools, on the model of 
 Pestalozzi's, were started in Madrid, Naples, 
 and St. Petersburg. The Emperor of Russia 
 gave him a personal proof of his favour and 
 esteem, and Fichte declared, in his "Addresses 
 to the German Nation," that he saw in Pesta- 
 lozzi and his labours the dawning of a new 
 era for humanity. In 1808, the most hope- 
 less period of the history of Germany, Fichte 
 addressed a Prussian audience in Berlin, and 
 
 * I am indebted for this parallel to an article by Mr. 
 Tilleard in the " Museum " for 1861. 
 
FICHTE. I0 5 
 
 called upon them, and upon all his countrymen, 
 to look the humiliation of their country fairly in 
 the face, and devise remedies for her salvation. 
 ' Political resistance,' he cried, ' was now in vain, 
 and the only hope that remained for them to 
 cherish was their hope in the rising generation. 
 They must live, not for themselves, but for the 
 upbringing and education of this generation. It 
 is education alone, the education of a worthy 
 posterity, that can save us from the evils by which 
 we are oppressed/ 
 
 In reading this stirring address in the light of 
 the eventful history of 1870 and 1871, one feels 
 how far-seeing Fichte was, and his heart beats 
 high at the glorious success which crowned sixty 
 years of a nation's educational efforts. Happy is 
 the nation that possesses a Fichte in its hour of 
 despair, and happier still if it can lay the lesson 
 of its despair to heart, and take the advice so 
 nobly proffered. 
 
 Fichte's words made a deep impression on a 
 young man named Carl Von Raumer, then 
 resident at Paris, and absorbed at the same 
 moment in reading " How Gertrude Teaches her 
 Children." Moved by Fichte's words, and by 
 Pestalozzi's book, Raumer made up his mind to 
 visit Yverdun in person, and get himself trained 
 for the work which every patriotic German was 
 
1 06 HENR Y FESTAL OZZI. 
 
 now called upon to undertake. And Raumer was 
 specially qualified for the task. He had already 
 studied at Gottingen and Halle, and had devoted 
 several years to the practical study of mineralogy. 
 His account of what he saw in Pestalozzi's school, 
 accordingly, is that of an intelligent and expe- 
 rienced eye-witness, and his estimate of Pesta- 
 lozzi's genius and character is acknowledged to 
 be both faithful and unbiassed. It is contained 
 in a large work of his, entitled, " Geschichte der 
 Padagogik," a history of educational science, 
 which is generally considered to be the best of 
 its kind. The article on Pestalozzi was translated 
 some years ago by Mr. Tilleard of the Council 
 Office, and to this I have been greatly indebted in 
 writing this chapter. 
 
 It was towards the close of October, 1809, that 
 Raumer reached the institution at Yverdun, the 
 situation of which was beautiful in the extreme. An 
 extensive meadow separated it from the southern 
 end of the glorious Lake of Neufchatel, on the 
 west side of which rose the Jura Mountains, 
 covered with vineyards. He was conducted to 
 Pestalozzi; and he describes him as being 'dressed 
 in the most negligent manner, having on an old 
 grey overcoat, but no waistcoat, and his stockings 
 were hanging down over his slippers ; his coarse, 
 bushy, black hair uncombed and frightful ; his 
 
PESTALOZZrS ASSISTANTS. 107 
 
 brow deeply furrowed, his dark brown eyes now 
 soft and mild, and now full of fire. You hardly 
 noticed that the old man, so full of geniality, was 
 ugly ; you read in his singular features long con- 
 tinued suffering and great hopes.' 
 
 Equally graphic descriptions are given of Pes- 
 talozzi's assistants ; Niederer, who gave Raumer 
 the impression of a young Roman Catholic priest ; 
 Krusi, who was somewhat corpulent, fair, blue 
 eyed, mild, and benevolent ; and Schmid, who was, 
 if possible, more cynical in his dress than Pesta- 
 lozzi, with sharp features, and eyes like those of a 
 bird of prey ; all notable men in the personal 
 history of Pestalozzi. There were at this time in 
 the institution 165 pupils, of ages varying from six 
 to seventeen, about half of whom were Swiss, the 
 rest German, French, Prussian, Italian, Spanish, 
 and American. In addition there were fifteen 
 teachers, and thirty-two persons who may be 
 designated students in training to be teachers. 
 None of the teachers had a sitting room to himself, 
 and Raumer states that when he had any private 
 work to do, he had to do it while standing at a 
 writing desk in the midst of the tumult of a class. 
 His expectations, which had perhaps been too 
 high, were not realized. Among other things, he 
 expected to find a spirit of cordial love and 
 concord reigning throughout, and that the place 
 
I0 8 HENRY PESTALOZZI. 
 
 would be, as it were, a school for cultivating 
 domestic affection and unity. Such, alas ! was the 
 ideal in Pestalozzi's mind, but the actual facts fell 
 far short of it. Indeed, the tone of the school was 
 one more of pushing and driving than of domestic 
 peace. And the source of this discrepancy is not 
 far to seek : it lay manifestly in the fact that while 
 Pestalozzi's ideal comprehended the amelioration 
 of the whole human race, he had not the requisite 
 ability for conducting even the smallest village 
 school. Nay, his highly active imagination led 
 him to consider and describe, as actually existing 
 in the institution, whatever he hoped sooner or 
 later to see realized. His hopeful spirit foresaw 
 future development in what was already accom- 
 plished, and he expected that others would bene- 
 volently see the same. This bold assumption 
 had an effect on many, especially on the teachers 
 of the institution; and this fact explains how in 
 Pestalozzi's reports on the institution and on his 
 system, so much could be said bond fide, which a 
 sober spectator was forced to pronounce untrue. 
 The concern which Pestalozzi felt in regard 
 to the reputation of his establishment became 
 painfully apparent when foreigners, particularly 
 persons of distinction, visited Yverdun. Ram- 
 sauer, who was a teacher here as well as at 
 Burgdorf, gives the following graphic account 
 
HIS ENTHUSIASM. 
 
 109 
 
 of the results of the old man's feeling in this 
 respect : 
 
 1 As many hundred times in the course of the 
 year, as foreigners visited the Pestalozzian Insti- 
 tution, so many hundred times did Pestalozzi allow 
 himself, in his enthusiasm, to be deceived by them. 
 On the arrival of every fresh visitor, he would go 
 to the teachers in whom he placed most confidence 
 and say to them, " This is an important personage, 
 who wants to become acquainted with all we are 
 doing. Take your best pupils and their analysis 
 books (copy-books in which the lessons were writ- 
 ten out), and show him what we can do, and what 
 we wish to do." Hundreds and hundreds of times 
 there came to the institution silly, curious, and 
 often totally uneducated persons, who came 
 because it was the " fashion." On their account, 
 we usually had to interrupt the class instruction, 
 and hold a kind of examination. In 1814, the 
 aged Prince Esterhazy came. Pestalozzi ran all 
 over the house, calling out, " Ramsauer, Ramsauer, 
 where are you ? Come directly with your best 
 pupils to the Red House (the hotel at which the 
 Prince had alighted). He is a person of the 
 highest importance, and of infinite wealth ; he has 
 thousands of bond slaves in Hungary and Austria. 
 He is certain to build schools, and set free his 
 slaves, if he is made to take an interest in the 
 
! IO HENR Y PESTALOZZL 
 
 matter." I took about fifteen pupils to the hotel. 
 Pestalozzi presented me to the Prince with these 
 words : " This is the teacher of these scholars, a 
 young man who, fifteen years ago, migrated with 
 other poor children from the canton of Appenzell, 
 and came to me. But he received an elementary 
 education, according to his individual aptitudes, 
 without let or hindrance. Now he is himself a 
 teacher. Thus you see that there is as much 
 ability in the poor as in the richest, frequently 
 more ; but in the former it is seldom developed, 
 and even then, not methodically. It is for this 
 reason that the improvement of the popular 
 schools is so highly important. But he will shew 
 you everything we do better than I could. I 
 will, therefore, leave him with you for the present." 
 I now examined the pupils, taught, explained, 
 and bawled in my zeal till I was quite hoarse, 
 believing that the Prince was thoroughly con- 
 vinced about everything. At the end of an hour, 
 Pestalozzi returned. The Prince expressed his 
 pleasure at what he had seen. He then took leave ; 
 and Pestalozzi, standing on the steps of the hotel, 
 said, " He is quite convinced, quite convinced, and 
 will certainly establish schools on his Hungarian 
 estates." When we had descended the stairs, 
 Pestalozzi said, " Whatever ails my arm ? It is 
 so painful. Why, see ! it is quite swollen, I can't 
 
PERSONAL QUARRELS. ! l r 
 
 bend it ! " And in truth his wide sleeve was now 
 too small for his arm. I looked at the key of the 
 house door of the Maison Rouge, and said to 
 Pestalozzi, " Look here, you struck yourself 
 against this key when we were going to the 
 Prince an hour ago." On closer observation, it 
 appeared that Pestalozzi had actually bent the 
 key by hitting his elbow against it. In the first 
 hour afterwards he had not noticed the pain, for 
 the excess of his zeal and joy. So ardent and 
 zealous was the good old man, already numbering 
 seventy years, when he thought he had an oppor- 
 tunity of doing good! I could adduce many such 
 instances. It was nothing rare in summer for 
 strangers to come to the Castle four or five times 
 in the same day, and for us to have to interrupt 
 the instruction two, three, or four times.' 
 
 The contradiction previously referred to, and, 
 in addition, the personal quarrels of the teach- 
 ers, gradually sealed the fate of the institution. 
 A spirit of opposition soon sprang up against 
 it. The public journals, as Pestalozzi himself 
 acknowledges, reported that 'what we did was 
 by no means what we considered and repre- 
 sented ourselves to be doing ; but, instead of 
 penitently retiring to modesty, we sturdily re- 
 sisted this opposition/ Persisting in this folly, 
 Pestalozzi and his staff pressed for a formal 
 
I ! 2 HENR Y PESTALOZZI. 
 
 examination by the State ; and a commission of 
 inquiry went, and remained five days ' five 
 sultry days' for Pestalozzi and his teachers. The 
 report subsequently issued, though without doubt 
 impartial, was not quite favourable ; and after its 
 publication there arose a long and violent literary 
 warfare, which did anything but add to the credit 
 of the institution. Fortunately we have the 
 valuable testimony of Raumer, which may be 
 accepted as in the main trustworthy. He attri- 
 butes the failure of the institution to two or three 
 causes, the chief of which was (i) the one already 
 indicated, that the family or domestic character 
 was not sufficiently preserved, of which Raumer 
 had painful proof from observing that Freddy, a 
 little boy whom he had taken with him, led a cold 
 and uncomfortable existence, which grieved and 
 troubled him much. (2) Many of the teachers 
 were unskilled and insufficiently educated, and 
 in many cases ambitious to ' try their prentice 
 hand ' at new methods and new plans, and their 
 chief did not try to remedy the evil by giving 
 them lectures and training them in the practice of 
 school teaching, both of which courses are im- 
 peratively necessary, and are now carried out in 
 every training school. (3) Pestalozzi's views of 
 what a teacher should be were not high in fact, 
 he laboured under the mistaken notion that a 
 
LEARNING IN SILENCE. ! x 3 
 
 teacher had nothing to do but ' take his scholars 
 through a compendium, following the directions 
 how to use it, without adding thereto, or diminish- 
 ing therefrom. He was never required to be 
 more than just a step in advance of the scholars. 
 Just as if a guide with a lantern were to be given 
 to a man travelling in the night, and the guide 
 had not only to light the traveller, but first to find 
 out the way himself with the aid of the lantern.' 
 
 No wonder that Raumer, who went about 
 listening and observing attentively in silence, 
 declares that in moments of sadness the institiir 
 tion appeared to him like a great noisy education 
 factory. On one occasion, Pestalozzi came to 
 him and said, ' My teachers are afraid of you, be- 
 cause you only listen and look on in silence ; why 
 do you not teach ?' ' I answered that before 
 teaching I wished to learn to learn in silence. 
 Pestalozzi pressed me to teach mineralogy, and in 
 doing so to make use of a small collection of 
 minerals which the institution possessed. I 
 replied that, if I did so, I must entirely depart 
 from the methods of instruction pursued in the 
 institution. How so ? asked Pestalozzi. Accord- 
 ing to that method, I replied, I should have 
 nothing to do but to hold up before the boys one 
 specimen of the collection after another, to give 
 the name of each, for example, " that is chalk," 
 
HENRY PESTALOZZL 
 
 and thereupon to make the class repeat in unison 
 three times, " that is chalk." It was thought that 
 in this way the observation of actual objects and 
 instruction in language were provided for at the 
 same time. 
 
 ' I endeavoured to explain that such a mode of 
 instruction made a mere show, giving children 
 words before they had formed an idea of the 
 images of the minerals ; that moreover this pro- 
 cess of perception and conception was only dis- 
 turbed by the talking of the teacher and the 
 repetition of the scholars, and was therefore best 
 done in silence. On Pestalozzi's opposing this 
 view, I asked him why children are born speech- 
 less, and do not begin to learn to speak until they 
 are about three years old ; why we should in vain 
 hold a light before a child eight days old, and say 
 " light " three times, or even a hundred times, as 
 the child would certainly not try to repeat the 
 word ; whether this was not an indication to us 
 from a higher hand, that time is necessary for the 
 external perception of the senses to become 
 internally appropriated, so that the word shall 
 only come forth as the matured fruit of the in- 
 ward conception now fully formed. What I said 
 about the silence of children struck Pestalozzi.' 
 
 Raumer left the school in May, 1810; soon 
 after the other teachers retired one by one ; the 
 
ALL GOES WRONG. 115 
 
 brilliancy of its reputation decreased more and 
 more, and in 1817 its affairs came to a crisis. 
 How clear and cutting is the reproach of Niederer, 
 in a letter written to Pestalozzi in March, 1818 : 
 ' Ruin entered your institution,' he exclaims, 'when, 
 dazzled and led away by individual instances of 
 brilliant talents and results, you ceased to bestow 
 any particular attention on that which by its 
 nature can work only in silence, though it stands 
 higher than talent, and alone can render the 
 development of talent possible ; when you began 
 to act as if you owed everything to that with 
 which you could make a display, and nothing to 
 that which was not suited to this purpose.' 
 
 This lays down clearly, as on a chart, the rock 
 on which Pestalozzi split, and which brought the 
 institution at Yverdun to an unhonoured close. 
 Thus terminated the last of Pestalozzi's important 
 educational undertakings ; his wife, faithful and 
 patient to the end, had died in 1811, and was 
 buried under two walnut trees in the garden of 
 the Castle ; and, in 1825, Pestalozzi himself, an 
 old man of eighty years, and weary of life, retired 
 to Neuhof, where exactly half a century before 
 he had begun his first poor school. Before he 
 died he wrote the " Fortunes of My Life," looking 
 back with much pain on his many shipwrecked 
 enterprises, and acknowledging that the blame 
 
1 1 6 HENR Y FESTAL OZZL 
 
 had been his own, that the wreck of his life had 
 been brought on by his incompetency to manage 
 the helm. On the I7th February, 1827, he came 
 to his grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn 
 cometh in his season (Job v, 26), and over the 
 grave where he rests from his toilsome labours, 
 the following epitaph has been inscribed by his 
 admiring countrymen : 
 
 'To OUR FATHER PESTALOZZI. 
 
 Here reposes Henry Pestalozzi. 
 
 Born at Zurich, 1 2th January, 1746. 
 
 Died at Brugg, lyth February, 1827. 
 
 Saviour of the poor at Neuhof. 
 
 Father of the orphans at Stanz. 
 
 Founder of new schools for the people at Burgdorf. 
 
 Teacher of humanity at Yverdun. 
 
 A man, a Christian, a citizen. 
 
 Everything for others, for himself nothing. 
 
 Peace to his ashes ! ' 
 
 At Pestalozzi's grave we forget his faults ; and 
 irt spite of his faults we love the man. His 
 personal influence on methods of teaching was 
 small, but his principles have taken deep root. 
 He compelled the scholastic world to revise the 
 whole of its task, or, to use his own forcible 
 expression, 'he turned the European education 
 vessel round, and put it in a new track/ His 
 spirit has been infused into whole generations of 
 
PESTALOZZrs MISTAKE. r l - 
 
 teachers in his native land, and into numberless 
 disciples far and wide over the civilized world. 
 The great development of education in England 
 during the past half century is in a great measure 
 due to his influence. The earliest minutes of the 
 Education Department recognise the merit of 
 his principles, and offer practical suggestions to 
 teachers directly based upon them. * It was on 
 the model of the institutions founded by Pesta- 
 lozzi and Fellenberg that Sir James Kay Shuttle- 
 worth and Mr. Tufnell founded the Battersea 
 Normal School, one of the earliest of its kind in 
 this country. The Home and Colonial School 
 Society, also, by whom so much has been done 
 for the improvement of infant education, have 
 professedly been guided by his example."!* 
 
 Perhaps the gravest mistake Pestalozzi made 
 in his whole system of teaching was his failing to 
 base his instruction on the life-giving principles of 
 Christianity. A Christian he was no doubt, but 
 religious teaching held too little place in his 
 system. It was the moral sense which Pestalozzi 
 sought to honour and to develop and having 
 faith, like Rousseau and Basedow, in the innate 
 nobility of human nature and in its perfecti- 
 bility through good influences and training, he 
 
 *" Minutes," 1840, 1841. 
 
 t See Hartley's " Schools for the People," pp. 8, 9. 
 
1 1 8 HENRY PESTALOZZI. 
 
 takes no account of man's natural depravity, of 
 the vicious elements which Christianity pre- 
 supposes, which observation makes known to us, 
 and on which education should act with a view 
 to their reformation. Like Rousseau, Pestalozzi 
 sought to gather figs of thorns, and, as a conse- 
 quence, reaped only the bitterer fruit* 
 
 The following is Pestalozzi's estimate of 
 what a teacher should be : ' The schoolmaster 
 should at least be an open-hearted, cheerful, 
 affectionate, and kind man, who would be 
 as a father to the children ; a man made 
 on purpose to open children's hearts and their 
 mouths, and to draw forth their understandings, 
 as it were, from the hindermost corner. In most 
 schools, however, it is just the contrary. The 
 schoolmaster seems as if he were made on pur- 
 pose to shut up children's mouths and hearts, 
 and to bury their good understandings ever 
 so deep under ground. That is the reason 
 why healthy and cheerful children, whose hearts 
 are full of joy and gladness, hardly ever like 
 school.' (Biber, p. 147.) And his opinion of 
 the duty of teachers to interest : ' An inter- 
 est in study is the first thing which a teacher 
 
 * On the judgment of the Conservative School on the 
 influence of Pestalozzi, see " De FEducation Populaire, par 
 Eugene Rendu," pp. 191, 193. 
 
HIS CHARACTER. 1 1 g, 
 
 should endeavour to excite and keep alive. 
 There are scarcely any circumstances in which a 
 want of application in children does not proceed 
 from a want of interest ; and there are perhaps 
 none in which the want of interest does not 
 originate in the mode of teaching adopted by the 
 teacher. I would go so far as to lay it down as a 
 rule, that wherever children are inattentive, and 
 apparently take no interest in a lesson, the teacher 
 should always first look to himself for the reason. 
 There is a most remarkable reciprocal action 
 between the interest which the teacher takes, and 
 that which he communicates to his pupils. If he 
 is not with his whole mind present at the subject, 
 if he does not care whether he is understood or 
 not, whether his manner is liked or not, he will 
 alienate the affections of his pupils, and render 
 them indifferent to what he says. But real 
 interest taken in the task of instruction kind 
 words and kinder feelings the very expression of 
 the features, and the glance of the eye, are never 
 lost upon children/ * 
 
 Whether we turn to French, German, or 
 English estimates, the panegyrics on Pestalozzi's 
 character are equally strong. In the words of 
 Eugene Rendu, 'we cannot but render homage 
 to the man whose life was a constant immolation 
 * " Letters on Early Education," xxx, p. 150. 
 
! 20 HENR Y PESTALOZZI. 
 
 of self.' Fichte says, ' Pestalozzi must needs 
 remain in the history of our age one of the most 
 extraordinary and beautiful phenomena. This 
 his contemporaries feel ; posterity will appreciate 
 it still more deeply.' Mr. Tilleard, in an article 
 
 /in the /'Encyclopedia Britannica," remarks/ His 
 enthusiastic love for children ; his zealous devo- 
 tion to the interests of his countrymen and of 
 humanity ; his unswerving faith in the efficacy of 
 education (under God's blessing) for the regenera- 
 tion of the lower classes of society ; his unflinch- 
 ing courage in urging upon rulers, and all set in 
 authority, the sacred duty of providing for the 
 poor a more Christian institution than either the 
 workhouse or the gaol ; above all, the intense 
 concentration of energy and purpose with which 
 he pursued his object through a long and often 
 unhappy life : those features in his character 
 demand our highest admiration, and place Pesta- 
 lozzi in the foremost rank of distinguished 
 
 \ schoolmasters/* 
 
 * The most recent biography of Pestalozzi is that by H. 
 Morf, of Winterthur. This book affords the best picture 
 that has been drawn of Pestalozzi, doing ample justice to 
 his character and his labours. His complete works are to 
 be had in a new, cheap, and correct edition by the Rev. 
 L. W. Seyffarth, published at Brandenburgh. 
 
DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 Sketch of his Life School at Madras Invention of the Monitorial 
 System Publication of "an Experiment on Education" 
 Details of the Monitorial System Its Introduction Modes of 
 Discipline Successful Teaching The " Paidometer" Moni- 
 torial System, pro and con Its chief Advocates Introduction 
 into England The tl Bell and Lancaster" Controversy 
 Mrs. Trimmer National Society British and Foreign School 
 Society Chairs of Education. 
 
 IN the case of Dr. Bell, Scotland can boast of 
 giving birth to an educationist, of whom Southey 
 wrote a flattering biography, in three volumes, 
 and whose fame obtained for him a resting-place 
 in Westminster Abbey, where an elegant monu- 
 ment characterizes him as the ' Author of the 
 Madras System/ When the teacher learns, 
 further, that this educationist professes to show 
 him a plan, whereby a school may teach itself 
 under the superintendence of the master, he is 
 naturally anxious to sit down and listen atten- 
 tively to' what he has to say. But whether the 
 
122 DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 system justifies the professions of its author, the 
 reader must judge for himself. 
 
 Born at St. Andrews, in 1753, Dr. Bell was 
 educated at the university there, went to America, 
 and, after a short residence there, returned to Eng- 
 land, and took orders in the Episcopal Church. 
 After acting as minister at Leith for a short time, 
 a position which did not satisfy him, he set out 
 for India in 1787, thinking that he might there 
 turn his acquirements in natural philosophy to 
 good account, in the way of lecturing and teach- 
 ing. On his arrival at Madras he was favourably 
 received, and met with considerable encourage- 
 ment, as he says himself, 'in the line of the 
 Church.' Among other offices to which he was 
 appointed, most of them sinecures, but none of 
 them, as a critic remarks, 'sine salaries,'* was 
 that of chaplain to the garrison ; and in this capa- 
 city it was that he had an opportunity of display- 
 ing his inventive genius in the work of education, 
 A school for educating the orphan children of 
 European soldiers had shortly before been estab- 
 lished at Madras, and to Dr. Bell, as chaplain, 
 the superintendence of this school was committed. 
 A good salary was offered to him ; but this, to 
 his credit be it said, he firmly and persistently 
 declined, as he considered the task of instructing 
 * " Dunn's Sketches," p. 27. 
 
A HAPPY CHANCE. 
 
 123 
 
 the young to be one of his chief duties as a 
 clergyman. The difficulties he had to encounter 
 were of the most unpromising kind ; the children, 
 who were half-caste, were inferior both in moral 
 and intellectual faculties, and the teachers were so 
 wedded to their own mode of teaching, or, * so 
 much oppressed by the lethargy incident to a 
 tropical climate,' that they declined to carry out 
 the plans he proposed. As he pondered over the 
 perplexities of his position, and looked in vain for 
 a solution of his difficulties, he chanced, on one of 
 his morning rides, to pass by a Malabar school, 
 where he observed the children seated on the 
 ground, arid writing with their fingers in sand. 
 He hastened home, repeating as he went ' I have 
 it now/ and gave immediate orders to the 
 ushers of the lowest classes to teach the alphabet 
 in the same manner, sand being provided, and 
 strewn upon a board. This order met with 
 the usual reception, the ushers declaring the thing 
 to be impossible. But the doctor was not to be 
 daunted. Despairing of help from his teachers, 
 he bethought himself of employing a boy, on 
 whose obedience, disposition, and cleverness he 
 could rely, and giving him charge of the alphabet 
 class. The lad's name was John Frisken (the 
 name of the first monitor in English education is 
 deserving of honourable mention), the son of a 
 
DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 soldier, and then about eight years old. Dr. Bell 
 gave him the necessary directions, and told him 
 that he looked to him for success. What the usher 
 had declared tcr be impossible, the lad succeeded 
 in effecting without any difficulty. The alphabet 
 class made rapid progress, and Frisken was 
 appointed its permanent teacher. Following out 
 his experiment, Dr. Bell appointed other boys 
 to be assistant teachers to the lower classes, 
 giving to Frisken oversight of the whole, 
 because of his intelligence and experience. 
 Similar improvement was noticed in these 
 classes, as had taken place in teaching the 
 alphabet, a result which Dr. Bell attributed to the 
 diligence and fidelity with which his little friends, 
 as he used to call them, carried out his orders. 
 To them a smile of approbation was no mean 
 reward, and a look of displeasure sufficient punish- 
 ment. In the joy of his heart, Dr. Bell proceeded 
 to apply his system of monitors to the whole 
 school ; the master and ushers being gradually 
 superseded. The precise date of this experiment, 
 the germ of our present excellent system of 
 pupil teachers, cannot be ascertained, but it may 
 be taken with sufficient accuracy to have been 
 not later than 1791.* 
 
 The results achieved by this system of teaching 
 * Southev's " Life of Dr. Bell;' vol. I. 
 
WILLIAM SMITH. ! 2 5 
 
 were most satisfactory. In 1794, Dr. Bell wrote 
 to a friend in the following terms : " The school 
 promises fair to present to me the sole reward I 
 have sought of all my labours with my young 
 pupils, by giving to society an annual crop of 
 good and useful subjects, many of them rescued 
 from the lowest state of depravity and wretched- 
 ness." * In point of learning, too, the boys soon 
 advanced far beyond their original masters, and 
 were instructed in arithmetic, vulgar and decimal 
 fractions, book-keeping, grammar, geography, 
 geometry, mensuration, navigation, and astro- 
 nomy. One of them, William Smith, attended 
 the embassy to Tippoo Saib, when his sons the 
 hostage princes were restored, and went through 
 a course of experiments in natural philosophy in 
 presence of the Sultan, who detained the youth 
 after the embassy had taken leave, that he might 
 instruct two of his courtiers in the use of Dr. 
 Bell's set of philosophical apparatus, which had 
 been purchased and presented to him by the 
 Government of Madras, an incident which was 
 wrought into a story by Miss Edgeworth, author 
 of " Practical Education," and appears in her 
 popular tales under the title of " Lame Jervas." 
 Mr. Edgeworth, her father, at that time a Com- 
 missioner on Irish education, having written to 
 * " Abridged Works of Dr. Bell," by Bishop Russell, p. 32. 
 
126 DR - ANDREW BELL. 
 
 him in 1806 for advice on various matters, Dr. 
 Bell disclaims ability to recommend books on the 
 subject of education, to a man who had read so 
 much, and adds : ' There is only one book which 
 I have studied, and which I take the liberty to 
 recommend. It is a book in which I have 
 learned all I have taught, and infinitely more ; 
 a book open to all alike, and level to every 
 capacity, which only requires time, patience, and 
 perseverance, with a dash of zeal and enthusiasm 
 in the perusal I mean a school full of children! 
 
 The change produced on the character of his 
 pupils had an immediate effect on their condition 
 and their prospects in life ; and they were eagerly 
 sought for, to fill situations of considerable trust 
 and emolument. The school became deservedly 
 popular, and the Government, being sensible of 
 the beneficial tendency of the system of teaching 
 pursued in it, and of its ready adaptation to all 
 schools of a similar kind, in which economy of 
 time and of means was extremely important, took 
 steps to extend it to other Presidencies. In the 
 year 1796, the effect of climate began to tell on 
 Dr. Bell's health and constitution to such a 
 degree, that it became necessary for him to return 
 to Europe. With this view he drew up a very 
 full report on the state of the school, which was 
 published in London in 1797, under the title of 
 
ORGANIZA TION. ! 2 7 
 
 " An Experiment in Education, made at the Male 
 Asylum, Madras ; suggesting a System by which 
 a School or Family may Teach itself under the 
 Superintendence of the Master or Parent," a 
 report which gives minute directions as to the 
 arrangements of the Madras school, and from 
 which I now proceed to quote the most interest- 
 ing and useful points. 
 
 I. In respect to organization, the school is 
 divided into classes consisting of from twenty- 
 five to thirty boys. Each class is paired off into 
 tutors and pupils ; thus, in a class of twelve boys, 
 the six superior tutor the six inferior, each each, 
 and in their seats the boys take their places in 
 different order from that in which they stand in 
 their class, as each pupil sits by the side of his 
 tutor. 'Mark/ says the doctor, 'how many 
 advantages grow out of this simple arrangement. 
 From the moment you have nominated a boy a 
 tutor, you have exalted him in his own eyes, and 
 given him a character to support, the effect of 
 which is well known. Next, the tutors enable 
 their pupils to keep up with their classes, which, 
 otherwise, some of them would fall behind, and be 
 degraded to a lower class. Another advantage 
 attending this arrangement is, that the tutor far 
 more effectually learns his lesson than if he had 
 not to teach it to another/ 
 
128 DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 There is undoubtedly a sound principle in this 
 tutorial arrangement of Dr. Bell's, and every 
 elementary teacher should take advantage of it, 
 as far as is possible in the circumstances of his 
 school ; but the doctor omits to show how it is 
 possible with the system of place-taking, which 
 he adopted and strongly recommends, to secure 
 a cordial " coaching " of the pupil by his tutor, 
 when the very cordiality and success of the 
 14 coaching " might be the means of reversing the 
 position of the tutor and pupil when lessons came 
 to be said. 
 
 Again, each class has an assistant teacher 
 (one of the senior boys), whose sole employ- 
 ment it is to instruct that class ; to see that 
 the tutors do their part ; that they not only get 
 their own lessons, but assist and forward their 
 pupils, and, under the teacher, hear the whole 
 class, tutors and pupils, say the lessons which 
 they have assisted them in preparing. He sees 
 at every instant how every boy in his class is 
 employed, and hears every word uttered. This 
 station of assistant was one of great emulation, 
 being conferred only on such as performed their 
 tasks with diligence, fidelity, and success. 
 
 The third grade in the rank of monitors was 
 that of teacher, each of whom had charge of one 
 or more classes. His business was to direct and 
 
DUTIES OF THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 I2 9 
 
 guide the assistants, inspect their respective 
 classes the tutors and pupils and see that all 
 was maintained in good order, strict attention, 
 and rigid discipline. The teacher must also hear 
 each class say their lessons, or be present while 
 the assistant does so. In cases where the 
 assistant proves himself equal to the entire 
 charge of his class, he is promoted to the rank 
 of teacher. Of these teachers and assistants, 
 there were fourteen in all at the Madras school 
 for 200 boys, none of them less than seven, or 
 more than fourteen years of age. 
 
 And what, under this system, were the duties 
 of the schoolmaster ? His province was to watch 
 over and conduct the machine in all its parts and 
 operations, and see the various offices just de- 
 scribed carried into effect. From his place he 
 overlooks the whole school, and gives life and 
 motion to every member of it. He inspects the 
 classes one by one, and is occupied wherever 
 there is most occasion for his services, and where 
 they will best tell. He is to encourage the 
 diffident, the timid, and the backward, to check 
 and repress the forward and presumptuous; to 
 bestow just and ample commendation upon the 
 diligent, attentive, and orderly, however dull 
 their capacity, or slow their progress ; to stimu- 
 late the ambitious, rouse the indolent, and make 
 
130 
 
 DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 the idle bestir themselves ; in short, to deal 
 out praise and displeasure, encouragement and 
 threatening, according to the temper, disposition, 
 and genius of the scholar. He is occasionally to 
 hear and instruct the classes, or rather overlook 
 and direct the teachers and assistants while they 
 do so. The advantage is, that not being per- 
 petually occupied as in most schools in hearing 
 and instructing one or other of the classes, which 
 necessarily withdraws his attention for the time 
 from the rest of the school, he has leisure to 
 see that all are employed as they ought. The 
 great advantage is that it is his chief business 
 to see that others work, rather than work him- 
 self, and that he is most usefully employed in 
 doing what men in general are most ready 
 to do * 
 
 These minute gradations of rank, devised for 
 the purpose of making the school teach itself, are 
 manifestly taken from the model of the army 
 and navy, and Dr. Bell confesses this in his letter 
 to Mr. Edgeworth, already referred to. 'Look 
 at a regiment or a ship, and you will see a 
 beautiful example of the system which I have 
 recommended for a single school. Look at the 
 army and navy, and you will see the grand 
 system of superintendence which pervades all the 
 * "Abridged Works," passim. 
 
SELECTION OF MONITORS. \ 3 r 
 
 works of men, and which will guide you in the 
 general organization of your schools. 1 
 
 Dr. Bell gives minute details of the methods 
 which are to be observed in reducing his scheme 
 to practice. Begin with arranging the school into 
 classes. In large schools where great numbers 
 have made equal progress, each class may consist 
 of thirty-six scholars. In small schools there 
 should be no more classes than the relative state 
 of the scholars' progress absolutely requires. 
 The fewer the classes the better. 
 
 The next step is to select the monitors of 
 different grades from among the senior and best 
 scholars. This is best done, if the master be not 
 acquainted with the dispositions, characters, and 
 attainments of the scholars, by the elective voice 
 of the superior boys, and afterwards by means of 
 the monitors selected, who scarcely ever fail to 
 find for him the boy best fitted for his purpose. 
 Their intimate knowledge of their school-fellows, 
 and their being responsible to the master for 
 their recommendation, are pledges of the faithful 
 discharge of their task. The assistant teacher of 
 a class may be the head boy of his own class, or 
 a trusty boy of a superior class, and his appoint- 
 ment may be left to the option of his superior 
 officer (the monitor teacher) when the latter has 
 proved himself to be able and faithful. It is 
 
132 
 
 DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 better to begin with a full share of teachers and 
 assistants, and to diminish them, if necessary, 
 when the school gets into order. The selection 
 of the head monitors (styled teachers) brings the 
 ability of the master to the test, for the discipline 
 of the school, and the progress of the respective 
 classes depend upon their capacity and diligence. 
 And not only must the master be careful in 
 selecting these, but he must exert his utmost 
 vigilance and discretion in overlooking and 
 directing all they do, and preventing or stopping 
 on its first occurrence the smallest irregularity, 
 deviation, or neglect. No teachers, who do not 
 prove themselves equal to the task assigned to 
 them, should be retained. The last step neces- 
 sary is to pair each class into tutors and pupils 
 the head, or rather the best and most trusty boy, 
 tutors the worst; the next best, the next worst, 
 and so on. From time to time a new arrange- 
 ment will be necessary when the pupils are found 
 to gain upon their tutors ; a point at which, as I 
 have said, the Doctor's plan seems to be wanting 
 in a knowledge of human nature. The pupil sits 
 by the side of his tutor for instruction in his seat, 
 but when the lessons are being heard by the 
 teacher the boys range themselves in the order in 
 which they left off at the end of the preceding 
 lesson, (pp. 348-3530 
 
MODES OF DISCIPLINE. ^3 
 
 So much for the organization of a Madras 
 school. The next subject of interest is its 
 ' modes of discipline.' In the first place, the 
 schoolmaster is furnished with a most powerful 
 operator, the 'black book/ as the boys call it, 
 or register of continued idleness, negligence, 
 ill-behaviour, and every offence which requires 
 serious investigation, and animadversion. To 
 this instrument Bell attached immense import- 
 ance in preserving order, diligence, good conduct, 
 and the most rigid discipline at the least expense 
 of punishment. The mode of working it seems 
 to have been the following. When any serious 
 offence occurred under the eye of any monitor, 
 whether tutor, assistant, or teacher, it was his 
 duty to report it to the schoolmaster, who was 
 to use his discretion, whether to reprimand or 
 threaten the culprit immediately, or to make a 
 note in the register for future judgment. Omis- 
 sion to report an offence was considered a serious 
 offence in itself; suppose a pupil committed an 
 offence, deserving to be noted, and his tutor, 
 though cognisant of it, failed to report it to the 
 assistant or schoolmaster, the tutor was put down 
 for neglect of duty. In like manner, if the tutor 
 gave notice to the assistant, and the assistant did 
 not to the teacher, the assistant was marked in 
 the book ; and so of the teacher. Also, if the 
 
134 
 
 DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 assistant was guilty of misbehaviour, the teacher 
 who witnessed it, and did not report it, was made 
 responsible, and so on. On the other hand, any 
 of the lower orders might report their superiors, 
 as was often the case ; but no one in the link 
 was called upon to do more than to report what 
 he saw, and knew to be done contrary to the 
 rules of the school, in the department committed 
 to his charge, and for which he stood responsible. 
 In the second place, this register \vas inspected 
 once a week, in presence of the whole school, 
 drawn up in a circle for that purpose, when 
 the nature and consequence of every omission 
 and commission was explained in the lan- 
 guage of the school. Each case brought up 
 by book was usually decided, as it were, 
 by jury, the boys around judging whether the 
 culprit was innocent or guilty. The moral pre- 
 cepts, given by the schoolmaster on these 
 occasions, being based on the actual offences 
 recorded, produced a better effect in reaching 
 the mind, and touching the heart, than abstract 
 lectures could have done ; and the effect of the 
 whole was much enhanced by the presence of 
 the superintendent and visitors, who examined 
 the school on these weekly occasions, and dis- 
 tributed rewards. This practice, no doubt, 
 suggested to Stow his system of moral training 
 
BEHA VIOUR AND DISCIPLINE. j 3 5 
 
 lessons in gallery. The Doctor's system seems 
 to reach the height of impracticability or ab- 
 surdity in the following rule : * When a bad 
 lying boy comes to school, the teacher of the 
 lower classes must find a good boy to take care 
 of him, teach him right principles, treat him 
 kindly, reconcile him to the school, and render him 
 happy, like the rest, in his situation, and in his 
 school, and playfellows/ (p. 117.) Out of doors, 
 as well as in school, similar means were taken 
 to secure good behaviour and discipline, and to 
 teach the boys useful habits. For example, Drl 
 Bell took advantage of the ablutions necessary 
 in a warm climate to teach them to swim ; and 
 if a boy, through fear, did not make progress in 
 the art, he had a day set for him, on which he 
 must shew a certain proficiency or be thrown 
 into the tank out of his depth. The greater 
 terror generally overcame the less ; but, if not, 
 care was taken to have the best swimmers col- 
 lected round him to prevent any serious accident. 
 A second ducking was never necessary to the 
 same boy. The following incident, related in the 
 Doctor's own words, affords sufficient proof that 
 the moral influence of his disciplinary system was 
 good. 
 
 ' A boy of eight or nine years of age, stupid, 
 sluggish, and pusillanimous, had been admitted 
 
136 
 
 DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 into the school. The other boys made a mock- 
 ing stock of him, and treated him with every 
 insult and indignity. Inured to this treatment at 
 his former school, he had no spirit to resist or 
 even complain. As soon as I observed what was 
 going on, and looked into the boy, it appeared to 
 me that he would soon be confirmed in perfect 
 idiotism, of which he had already the appearance. 
 I summoned the boys as usual, and in their pre- 
 sence adopted the stranger as my protege, because 
 he stood most in need of protection. I told them 
 that his disorder seemed to me to be in part 
 owing to the manner in which he had been 
 treated ; and I spoke of the event which I 
 apprehended from the continuance of such treat- 
 ment. I pointed out the very different line of 
 conduct which it was our duty to observe towards 
 a fellow-creature and a fellow-Christian, and 
 expressed a hope of the boy's improvement, if 
 they would all treat him with marked kindness and 
 encouragement. I enjoined them to change their 
 demeanour towards him ; and put him under the 
 charge of a trusty boy, who was to explain to his 
 pupil all that I had said. The result was wonder- 
 ful. I had the satisfaction of seeing in good time 
 the boy's countenance more erect and bright ; his 
 spirit, which had been completely broken, revived, 
 and his mind, which had sunk into lethargy and 
 
GOLDEN RULE IN TEACHING. \ 37 
 
 stupidity, reanimated. Henceforth, his progress, 
 though slow, was uniform and sure ; and there 
 was a good prospect of his becoming an in- 
 offensive and useful member of society, (p. 123.) 
 
 Before leaving this subject, I must not omit 
 to mention that Dr. Bell was strong against 
 corporal punishment, and quotes Seneca, 
 Ouintilian, Plutarch, Locke, and Tillotson, 
 as advocates against it. 
 
 Such were Dr. Bell's organization and dis- 
 cipline, which formed the best features of his 
 system. In connection with the art of teaching, 
 there is not much to record. The class work 
 recommended by him is similar to what may be 
 seen in every school at the present day. The 
 principles on which he went were short, easy, 
 frequent, or rather continued lessons, and that a 
 boy never knows anything which is told him, or 
 is improved by anything that is done for him ; it 
 is what he tells, and what he does for himself, 
 which is alone useful. This enunciation of what 
 I take to be the golden rule in all teaching, viz., 
 that in all school work children should do as 
 much as possible for themselves in other words, 
 be trained, shews that Dr. Bell knew the secret 
 of successful teaching. In giving lessons to 
 beginners in the alphabet, and in the rudiments 
 of writing, sand spread over a board was the 
 
133 
 
 DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 medium used. 'The advantages of this plan/ 
 he says, ' are many. It engages and amuses the 
 mind, and so commands the attention, that it 
 greatly facilitates the toil both of master and 
 scholars." (p. 93.) In due time the child was 
 promoted to paper, which he was on every occa- 
 sion made to rule for his own use. Nor was any 
 tutor or teacher allowed to write a single letter in 
 the scholar's copy ; everything had to be done by 
 himself, even to the making and mending of the 
 pen. He also adopted the excellent system of 
 making the children syllabify the words break 
 them into syllables when reading than which I 
 know no better method for training children to 
 acquire new or difficult words without help from 
 the teacher. Another feature worthy of notice 
 was the marked book. When a class was pro- 
 moted to a new book, the master marked with 
 pen and ink on the first page of those given to 
 the monitors the number of the class, the moni- 
 tor's name, the day of the month, and the manner 
 in which it was to be read ; and, in beginning 
 each lesson for the day, the monitor was required 
 to mark the day of the month, and also to make 
 a note of the place where each successive lesson 
 during the day began or ended. Then, at the 
 close of the day, the master or teacher entered in 
 a register the sum of the daily performances thus 
 
EXTRA VA GANT PRETENSIONS. x 39 
 
 made, and these were added up weekly and 
 monthly, and compared by the master or teacher 
 with what was done the preceding day, week, and 
 month. In the same register, called a paidometer, 
 entries were made to note the proficiency of every 
 individual. ' A similar plan was pursued with the 
 copy and ciphering books. 
 
 Such are the main features of the Madras 
 system, which attracted much attention in the 
 early part of the present century, and of the im- 
 portance of which greatly exaggerated estimates 
 were formed and made public. Dr. Bell's own 
 estimate is absurdly high. * The system,' he 
 says, 'has no parallel in scholastic history. In a 
 school it gives to the master the hundred eyes of 
 Argus, the hundred hands of Briareus, and the 
 wings of Mercury. By multiplying his ministers 
 at pleasure, it gives him indefinite powers ; in 
 other words, it enables him to instruct as many 
 pupils as his school-room will contain/ (p. 171.) 
 The very extravagance of the pretensions made 
 by Bell, and his equally enthusiastic contempor- 
 ary, Joseph Lancaster, led to a natural reaction, 
 and for many years, and even now, teaching by 
 monitors is decidedly unpopular among educa- 
 tionists. ' This system,' says Dr. Donaldson, 
 rector of the High School of Edinburgh, ' ignores 
 altogether the fact that the work of the teacher is 
 
140 
 
 DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 to evolve the powers of the mind, and that for this 
 work a wise and cultivated mind is required. In 
 Prussia, there are neither monitors nor pupil 
 teachers, a harmonious evolution of a human 
 being being considered in that country a very 
 important and difficult task ; but in Lancaster's 
 eyes this could be done quite well by a boy.' * 
 But, I believe, with Mr. Fitch, H.M. Inspector of 
 Schools, that both extremes of opinion are mis- 
 taken. ' Monitorial agency is not adapted, and 
 never can be adapted for mental training of a very 
 high order ; but it is well calculated to facilitate 
 much of the routine work of a large school, and 
 by it, when well managed, a great deal of that 
 work which is often regarded as drudgery by an 
 adult, may be performed not only more econo- 
 mically but more cheerfully and not less efficiently 
 than by any other method.' ( A monitor, too, 
 has naturally more sympathy with children, and 
 is better able to explain many difficulties than an 
 adult teacher ; he can keep the younger children 
 at work, and in good order, while the master directs 
 his energies to the other work of the school ; he 
 is more patient in imparting knowledge, and more 
 fertile in expedients for explaining and illustrating 
 it ; and, as I have remarked before, every teacher 
 
 * " Lectures on Education," p. 60. 
 t " Museum " for 1863. 
 
PROFESSOR PILLANS ON MONITORS. j^i 
 
 should take advantage of it to the extent which 
 the circumstances of his school will permit. In a 
 family, also, much benefit may be derived from 
 its adoption ; if the parents superintend the home 
 lessons, and train the elder children to teach the 
 younger, they may ensure a considerable progress 
 on the part of all, with little labour to themselves. 
 Nor must it be forgotten that the monitor receives 
 almost an equal benefit with the pupil in fact, 
 no one can be said to possess any knowledge 
 thoroughly until he has imparted it to others. 
 
 Opinions favourable to the monitorial system 
 have been expressed by various educationists. 
 Professor Pillans bears the following testimony : 
 ' Monitors are aware of the difficulties which 
 they themselves encountered but lately, and 
 are often able to explain them to their comrades 
 in a manner more familiar and intelligible than 
 can be done by the master, whose habits and 
 ways of thinking are so widely different.' Father 
 Girard, the benevolent founder of mutual instruc- 
 tion in Switzerland, says, that ' when he met w r ith 
 difficulty in explaining any word or subject to a 
 child, he often called in a boy more advanced to 
 aid him, and usually found him to succeed en- 
 tirely, even when all his own efforts had failed.' 
 Mr. Dunn, for many years Secretary to the British 
 and Foreign School Society, observes that ' a 
 
1^2 DR > ANDREW BELL. 
 
 monitorial school requires a better and abler 
 teacher than almost any other ; it demands more 
 energy, more skill, more wisdom, and more 
 strength, both of body and mind, and hence it 
 not unfrequently happens that, when schools fail 
 to accomplish the expectations of their founders, 
 reproaches are cast upon the plan, which really 
 belong to the agent, who has been vainly attempt- 
 ing to carry out arrangements, to the manage- 
 ment of which he was altogether incompetent.' * 
 Mr. Wyse, in his valuable work on " Education," 
 passes an equally strong eulogy on the system. 
 
 On Dr. Bell's return to England, he was ap- 
 pointed Rector of the parish of Swanage, in 
 Dorset, where he set himself to found Sunday 
 schools, on the principles of his favourite system. 
 He there met with difficulties similar to those 
 experienced at Madras, and displayed the same 
 zeal and perseverance, ' hammering directions 
 into his scholars,' as an eye-witness expressed 
 it, * like a blacksmith on an anvil.' The system 
 was tried in London, at Kendal, and elsewhere, 
 but made little progress, till the doings of Joseph 
 Lancaster, in a measure, ' dragged it into pro- 
 minence.' ( Lancaster had, about the same time, 
 invented a monitorial plan of much the same 
 
 * " Principles of Teaching," p. 48. 
 t Lancaster's own words. 
 
MRS. TRIMMER'S IDEA. I ^ 
 
 kind, and the claims of the rival systems excited 
 quite a storm of controversy ; and, strange to say, 
 as in the case of the Trojan war, a woman was 
 the originator of all the mischief. Mrs. Trimmer, 
 a minor educationist of the period, was the first 
 to suggest the idea that Lancaster's plans were 
 inimical to the Church of England. ' From the 
 time, sir/ she wrote to Dr. Bell, ' that I read Mr. 
 Lancaster's " Improvements on Education," I con- 
 ceived an idea that there was something in his 
 plan inimical to the interests of the Established 
 Church.' And then she adds, with charming 
 innocence, ' and when I read your " Experiment 
 on Education/' I plainly perceived he had been 
 building on your foundation.'* This roused the 
 spirit of jealousy in Dr. Bell's breast, and put an 
 end to the hitherto friendly relations between 
 Lancaster and himself. Mrs. Trimmer was 
 equally successful in alarming the church. 'This 
 Lancaster/ she wrote, ' is a Goliath of schis- 
 matics, and if the church does not bestir itself, 
 the education of the people will slip out of its 
 hands into those of this Quaker.' And such a 
 Quaker ! ' It is a curious fact/ she adds, with 
 delightful natvet^ ' that he was not originally 
 a Quaker, but an Anabaptist. Whether he 
 changed for the love of a pretty Quakeress, whom 
 * Southey's "Bell," vol. II. 
 
144 
 
 DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 he married, or whether the broad brim was the 
 best cover for his scheme, I cannot say.' The 
 alarm spread like wildfire over the length and 
 breadth of the land ; and church and chapel, 
 bishop and dissenting minister, were ranged 
 against each other, under the educational banner 
 of Bell or Lancaster. Sermons were preached, 
 voices were raised at public meetings, pamphlets 
 were published (including several by the inde- 
 fatigable Mrs. Trimmer), caricatures were ex- 
 hibited of Bel and the Dragon, and the rival 
 educators were upheld, by their respective parti- 
 sans, as benefactors of their race, who had invented 
 a panacea for the reformation of society and of 
 the world. ' The country was divided into two 
 great parties the Lancasterians and the Bible, 
 and the Bible only; and the followers of Bell, and 
 the Church of England in danger. Southey and 
 Coleridge, and the "Quarterly Review" denounced 
 Lancaster and his system ; but they had their 
 match in Sydney Smith and Brougham, and the 
 other writers of the " Edinburgh Review." ' * It 
 seems ludicrous that such a dust should have been 
 raised over the fact that two enthusiastic gentle- 
 men hit, about the same time, on a plan, that 
 almost every teacher of a month's experience is 
 sure to hit upon, for the instruction of his scholars. 
 * Donaldson's " Lectures," p. 63. 
 
LANCASTER'S OBLIGATIONS TO BELL. 
 
 I4S 
 
 Did not Pestalozzi, about the same time, fall 
 upon the method at Stanz ? Had not the system 
 been adopted in France, several years before, by 
 the Chevalier Paulet, a gentleman, by the way, 
 who adopted much the same modes of discipline as 
 those recommended by Herbert Spencer.* And 
 to go much farther back, it would appear from 
 Plutarch that Lycurgus introduced a similar 
 system of pedagogy in Sparta. It is sufficient, 
 on the question of priority, to state that Lancaster 
 himself acknowledges his indebtedness to Dr. Bell. 
 In his first pamphlet, published in 1803, he writes: 
 ' I ought not to close my account without acknow- 
 ledging the obligations I lie under to Dr. Bell ; I 
 much regret that I was not acquainted with the 
 beauty of his system, till somewhat advanced in 
 my plan. If I had known it, it would have saved 
 me much trouble and some retrograde movements.' 
 The sectarian storm that was raised bore the 
 rival claimants on the crest of its waves; and 
 fortunately it did not subside without giving a 
 considerable impetus to the progress of educa- 
 tion. In 1811 a society was formed for establish- 
 ing schools in connection with the Church of 
 England, and on Dr. Bell's system, called the 
 National Society. Dr. Bell was appointed to act 
 as superintendent in the formation of their 
 
 * " Edinburgh Review," vol. XXXIII, p. 489. 
 K 
 
146 >R> ANDREW BELL. 
 
 schools, and from this time till his death, his life 
 blends with the progress of the society and its 
 schools. To the duties of his office he devoted 
 himself with unwearied zeal and assiduity, travel- 
 ling extensively in the interests of the society, 
 and labouring for the diffusion of his system with 
 untiring energy. A similar society of Dissenters, 
 called the British and Foreign School Society, 
 was originated shortly afterwards, and each 
 triumph of one or other spurred the flagging 
 zeal of its rival. In this way the Madras system 
 found a footing not only in England, but in 
 Scotland and Ireland, and to a limited extent in 
 America. To facilitate its introduction on the 
 Continent, Dr. Bell made an extensive tour, in 
 the course of which he visited the schools of Pes- 
 talozzi and Fellenberg. With Pestalozzi, he was 
 quite charmed. ' He has much that is original/ 
 he exclaims, ' much that is excellent. If he had a 
 course of study if he were to dismiss his masters 
 and adopt the monitorial system, and the principle 
 of emulation, he would be superexcellent/ * 
 
 This vanity, which formed a marked feature in 
 his character, is perhaps pardonable in a man 
 who sacrificed so much for the cause of educa- 
 tion ; but one regrets to learn that his manner 
 towards the teachers and managers of the schools 
 *Southey's" Bell," vol. III. 
 
GENEROUS BEQUESTS. 147 
 
 he visited was not courteous. Southey acknow- 
 ledges that instead of delivering his instructions, 
 and making his remarks in a gentlemanly and 
 conciliatory way, his personal behaviour was such 
 that he was almost universally dreaded and dis- 
 liked. His treatment of the teachers in the pre- 
 sence of their pupils was frequently calculated to 
 create any other sentiments than respect and 
 attention. During his life, Dr. Bell received 
 several lucrative offices in the Church, and having, 
 perhaps, as strong a passion for money as for 
 education, he amassed a sum of 120,000, which 
 he bequeathed to various towns in his native 
 country for the erection and maintenance of 
 schools. To St. Andrews he bequeathed 
 60,000, the greater part of which was devoted 
 to the foundation of the Madras College. An 
 equal amount was divided betwixt Edinburgh, 
 Glasgow, Aberdeen, Leith, and Cupar-Fife, in 
 which Madras schools were established and are 
 still maintained, though the monitorial system is 
 no longer the chief feature in any of them. He 
 also founded a lectureship at Edinburgh on the 
 principles of teaching, and on the monitorial 
 system, which was first filled by his biographer, 
 Dr., afterwards Bishop Russell. This chair never 
 attracted any notice, probably in consequence of 
 its narrow basis in connection with the Theo- 
 
148 
 
 DR. ANDREW BELL. 
 
 logical Institution of the Episcopal Church ; but 
 following out the spirit of his will, and having 
 received from Government a grant of money, by 
 way of supplement to the funds at their own 
 disposal, the Bell Trustees have recently founded 
 chairs of education in the universities of Edinburgh 
 and St. Andrews. Whether these chairs will exer- 
 cise much influence on education remains to be 
 seen, and will depend very much on the ability 
 and judgment of the men who are selected to fill 
 them ; and on the scope which they propose for 
 themselves in their lectures. If the professors 
 occupy themselves with the higher principles of 
 their subject, with the science and history of 
 education, giving in their lectures the substance 
 of all that has been written and said on educa- 
 tion, and that has been carried into successful 
 practice in the work of teaching ; in short, if they 
 be men who can introduce their students to the 
 literature and the philosophy of the profession 
 they have chosen, I anticipate good results from 
 the establishment of these chairs. 
 
 Soon after making the princely donation re- 
 ferred to, Dr. Bell died at Cheltenham in 1832, 
 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the 
 highest dignitaries of the Church and many 
 eminent peers attending as mourners. 
 
JOSEPH LANCASTER. 
 
 Antecedents London Schools of the time Opens a School in the 
 Borough Road Its Great Popularity Monitorial System 
 Teaching to Read Writing Arithmetic Modes of Discipline 
 Religious Teaching Interview with the King Prosperity 
 and Extravagance Lecturing Tours Monitorial System tried 
 in Agriculture Resigns the Borough School Difficulties and 
 Death Character and Work. 
 
 AFTER what has been said of the monitorial 
 system in connection with Dr. Bell, little remains 
 to be said of it coupled with Joseph Lancaster. 
 Neither Bell's nor Lancaster's name is often 
 heard in connection with education, yet both 
 deserve a place in any gallery of educational 
 portraits. Like Bell, Lancaster devoted his life 
 to the spread of education, and it is hard to 
 say which had most enthusiasm for the system 
 which each claimed as his own. Bell used to 
 say, ' Give me four-and-twenty children to-day, 
 and I will supply you to-morrow with as many 
 teachers/ ' By the aid of monitors/ exclaimed 
 
1 50 JOSEPH LANCASTER. 
 
 Lancaster, ' one master can teach one thousand 
 boys/ Both had greatly exaggerated notions 
 as to the value of their discoveries, and wrought 
 themselves into the belief that they were de- 
 signed by Providence for the regeneration of 
 mankind. But, in other respects, the characters 
 of the men were widely different. Lancaster 
 was imaginative and excitable, the creature of 
 impulse, always, so to speak, 'on fire'; Bell 
 was distinguished by decorum and worldly pru- 
 dence. Lancaster was reckless and improvident 
 in money, matters; Bell was quite the opposite: 
 the one died in debt and obscurity, the other 
 wealthy and respected. But, l of the rare dili- 
 gence of Ascham, of the steadfast self-devotion 
 and the clear insight into child-nature of Pesta- 
 lozzi, of the high aims and manly earnestness 
 of Arnold, we are not reminded as we read the 
 life of either.'* 'Time has set its seal on the 
 doings of both, and how different is the verdict 
 to that which they so fondly anticipated ! The 
 monitorial principle survives, but their pretensions 
 and eccentricities are forgotten.' "f" 
 
 Lancaster was born in Southwark in 1778. 
 His father was a pensioner who had served in the 
 American war, and, under his pious instruction, 
 Lancaster was early imbued with a love for God, 
 
 * " Museum" for 1863. t Dunn's " Sketches." 
 
EARLY LIFE. 
 
 151 
 
 and with a burning desire to devote himself to 
 His service. It is possible, too, that his father's 
 experience as a soldier may have suggested to 
 Lancaster the almost military regime of his 
 system of discipline. At the age of fourteen, 
 Clarkson's " Essay on the Slave Trade " came in 
 his way, and he was at once seized with a 
 desire to set out for Jamaica and teach the poor 
 blacks to read the Word of God. For this 
 purpose he ran off from his parents, with a Bible 
 and a " Pilgrim's Progress " in his pocket, but 
 was in due time sent back by the captain of the 
 -ship on board which he had taken refuge. At 
 the age of sixteen he looked forward to the 
 Dissenting ministry, his religious views inclining 
 him to the society of Quakers; but after teaching 
 for a short time in private schools, he set him- 
 self with enthusiasm to the task of educating 
 the poor, to which his attention was directed 
 by the wretched state of the schools which 
 then existed. 
 
 * There is a sort of initiatory or preparatory 
 school/ he remarks, in his first tract on education, 
 ' to be found in every part of London. They 
 are frequented by boys and girls indiscriminately, 
 few of them being above seven years of age. 
 The mistress is frequently the wife of some 
 mechanic, induced to undertake the task from 
 
1 5 2 JOSEPH LANCASTER. 
 
 a desire to increase a scanty income, or to add 
 to her domestic comforts. The subjects of tuition 
 are reading and needlework; the number of 
 children is very fluctuating, and seldom exceeds 
 thirty. The pay is very uncertain. Disorder 
 and noise seem more the characteristics of these 
 schools than improvement of any kind. Many 
 poor children go at once from these schools 
 to work, and have no other opportunities of 
 instruction.' 
 
 Of the schools for older children, ' secondary 
 schools/ as he calls them, his report is equally 
 unfavourable. 
 
 ' The masters of these are generally the refuse 
 of superior schools, and too often of society at 
 large. The pay and number of scholars are 
 alike low and fluctuating : of course, there is 
 little encouragement for steady men, either to 
 engage or continue in this line, it being impos- 
 sible to keep school, defray its expenses, and 
 do the children regular justice without a regular 
 income. Eventually many schools, respectable 
 in better times, are abandoned to men of any 
 character, who use as much chicane to fill their 
 pockets as the most despicable pettifogger. 
 Writing books are scribbled through, whole 
 pages filled with scrawls, to hasten the demand 
 for new books. These schools are chiefly 
 
FIRST SCHOOL. 
 
 153 
 
 attended by the children of artificers, whose 
 pay fluctuates with their employ, and is some- 
 times withheld by bad principles. Debts are 
 often contracted that do not exceed a few 
 shillings ; then the parents remove their children 
 from school and never pay it, the smallness of 
 the sum proving an effectual bar to its recovery; 
 the trouble and loss of time being worse than 
 the loss of money in the first instance/ 
 
 Moved by this pitiable state of matters, which 
 the poet Crabbe describes very graphically in 
 his " Schools of the Borough," Lancaster opened 
 a school in 1798, at his father's house, which 
 stood nearly opposite the present Borough Road 
 Training College, into which this small beginning 
 was destined eventually to grow. The course 
 of instruction which he proposed to himself was 
 reading, writing, arithmetic, and a knowledge 
 of the Holy Scriptures, the fee being fourpence 
 a week, about half that charged at most other 
 schools. Yet, from the first, a good many were 
 admitted free, for over his door was printed 
 the announcement, ' All that will may send their 
 children and have them educated freely ; and 
 those that do not wish to have education for 
 nothing may pay for it, if they please/ He ' 
 was then only twenty years of age, and knew 
 no modes of teaching but those usually in 
 
I $4 JOSEPH LANCASTER. 
 
 practice; and for a time the school made only 
 ordinary progress, the number in summer being 
 about one hundred and twenty, and in winter 
 fifty or sixty. In a season of scarcity many of 
 the children were provided with dinner gratis, 
 chiefly at the expense of a noble and generous- 
 ^minded body of friends.* Such was Lancaster's 
 first establishment, in which it is probable that, 
 finding the old methods of teaching, to which he 
 had been accustomed, totally inadequate, and 
 puzzling himself what to do, he stumbled, as 
 he himself expressed it, on a plan similar to 
 Dr. Bell's, before he had seen the Madras Report. 
 At all events, the little school which he had 
 fitted up with his own hands, became too small 
 for the numbers in attendance, and he had, in 
 1 80 1, to remove to larger premises, which were 
 provided for him on the site of the college already 
 named, chiefly through the benevolent aid of 
 the Duke of Bedford and Lord Somerville. 
 Here, by calling in the aid of the senior boys, 
 he was enabled to do as much justice to hundreds 
 'of children as he had before done to tens. ' In 
 fact,' as he informs us himself, ( the children now 
 came to me like flocks of sheep ;' and in its 
 best days the school was attended by a thousand 
 children. The account of his position and 
 * Southey's Life of Dr. Bell," vol. I. 
 
PROSPERITY. 
 
 155 
 
 character at this prosperous time, and of his 
 relationships to his pupils, is very beautiful. 
 Like all true teachers, he loved his work, and 
 entered into it with his whole soul. Not content 
 with instructing the children in school, he was 
 their playmate in the intervals of lessons ; in 
 the evenings he had companies of them to tea, 
 and on holidays he took bands of them on 
 country excursions. No personal sacrifice seemed 
 too great, if it helped him to increase his know- 
 ledge of his scholars, and to give him greater 
 power of being useful to them. It would have 
 been better for Lancaster, and for his ultimate 
 reputation, if he had not been called from this 
 scene of busy usefulness ; but the report of the 
 work he was doing began to spread, and crowds 
 flocked to see what appeared like a miracle. 
 One master with a thousand scholars ! In the 
 words of a biographer, ' Foreign princes, ambas- 
 sadors, peers, commoners, ladies of distinction, 
 bishops and archbishops/ turned their steps to 
 the Borough Road,* and there they beheld a 
 scene they were not likely to forget. The school *- 
 presented a beautiful and orderly spectacle, 
 Lancaster having the rare gift of inspiring his 
 monitors and pupils with a spirit of enthusiasm 
 and good order. The whole tone of the place 
 * Dunn's Sketches." 
 
1 5 6 JOSEPH LANCASTER. 
 
 was joyous, duties were agreeably varied from 
 hour to hour, and though the noise often 
 bewildered a visitor, it was at least the noise of 
 animated work, and was succeeded in an instant, 
 at the word of command, by perfect stillness.' 
 
 , A There was the little company of monitors, loyal 
 to their master, full of zeal to please him, and 
 proud of the beauty and fame of the spectacle 
 in which they formed a part all ranged round 
 the school-room each with a class of children. 
 Let us pause to observe the lesson now going 
 on in spelling. 'The scholars,' as Lancaster 
 himself describes to us, ' have a desk before them 
 with ledges on every side, and it is filled with 
 sand to a level with these ledges ; every boy 
 is furnished with a sharp pointed wire to write, 
 or more properly to print with. A word is then 
 dictated by the monitor, for instance, " beer," 
 and it is immediately sketched on the sand by 
 every boy with the point of his skewer, and, when 
 inspected by the monitor, another word is dic- 
 tated as before. In this way, boys can write 
 and spell a hundred words in the course of a 
 morning, and five hundred boys can write and 
 spell the same word at the same instant of time.' 
 
 ^ This use of sand, which seems to have been 
 
 confined to the younger classes, for teaching the 
 
 * Mr. Fitch in " Museum." 
 
THE NEW METHOD. 
 
 157 
 
 elements of spelling and arithmetic, was adopted 
 from Dr. Bell's system ; but it is right to remark 
 that Lancaster came to prefer slates, both with 
 junior and senior pupils. 
 
 The visitor passes on, and his attention is 
 : directed to a class engaged in reading ; but, 
 instead of the old-fashioned practice of each hav- 
 ing book in hand, the children's eyes are all turned 
 towards a reading-board or sheet hung on the wall, 
 on which is printed in large type the lesson for the 
 day 'a method/ exclaims Lancaster, 'whereby 
 one book may serve for a whole school, instead 
 of one child only. And observe the method 
 employed. They read lines or sentences and 
 paragraphs in rotation. They must read every 
 word slowly and deliberately, pausing between 
 each. They read long words in the same way, 
 syllable by syllable ; thus, in reading the word 
 " composition/' they would not read it at once, 
 but by syllables, com-po-si-tion, making a pause 
 at every syllable.' * 
 
 The lessons in arithmetic were conducted in a 
 similar way, the old plan of setting sums to each 
 pupil in a copy or on a slate, being superseded by 
 the reading out of a question to a class which 
 then proceeded to work it out, the answer being 
 called out at the close, and the errors checked 
 * " Improvements in Education. 7 ' 
 
! 5 8 JOSEPH LANCASTER. 
 
 1 a capital discovery,' cried a partizan in the 
 " Edinburgh Review," ' for a boy can thus teach 
 arithmetic without being acquainted with it him- 
 self and everything else for that matter, for we 
 see no one science which may not be taught in 
 the same way. Every part of geometrical science 
 may be taught by similar means, from the first 
 proposition in Euclid to the sublime theorems of 
 Newton and Laplace.' * 
 
 This pretension, quite Jacototian in its character, 
 was, I am happy to say, not brought forward by 
 Lancaster, but by his unwise friend the reviewer, 
 and one regrets that the insinuation should be 
 made against the poor man to the present day. 
 Dr. Donaldson, in his " Lectures on Education," 
 informs us that ' one of the most ingenious 
 features of Lancaster's scheme was a plan by 
 which boys, who did not know arithmetic at all. 
 could teach it to others." (p. 60.) Lancaster's 
 rule was that every monitor must be fully com- 
 petent to teach the lessons of the class he was 
 appointed to ; and there was no exception made 
 in the case of arithmetic, or any other subject.^ 
 
 So much for Lancaster's methods of teaching, 
 
 by which reading, writing, and simple arithmetic 
 
 were faithfully and correctly taught a modest 
 
 curriculum certainly, but one beyond which the 
 
 * November, 1810. 
 
SCHOOL PRIZES. 
 
 159 
 
 Committee of Council on Education did not for 
 some years presume to go. If the visitor inquired 
 into the secret of his discipline, he might have 
 said, ' Friend, I have but one rule, " Let every 
 child have at all times something to do, and a 
 motive for doing it ; " ' and to do him justice this 
 rule was well carried out in practice. But at 
 the same time much of Lancaster's system of 
 discipline was puerile and mischievous. The 
 practice of giving rewards was carried to excess. 
 ' It is no unusual thing for me,' he says, ' to 
 deliver one or two hundred prizes at the same 
 time, and at such times the countenances of the 
 whole school exhibit a most pleasing scene of 
 delight, as the boys who obtain prizes commonly 
 walk round the room in procession, holding the 
 prizes in their hands, and preceded by a herald 
 proclaiming the fact before them. A collection 
 of toys, bats, balls, pictures, kites, were suspended 
 overhead, beaming glory and pleasure upon the 
 school beneath/ 
 
 Again, in a corner of the school might be seen 
 a boy sitting with a wooden log round his neck, 
 vfrom four to six pounds' weight. In aggravated 
 cases it was customary to fasten the legs of 
 offenders with wooden shackles, one or more, ac- 
 cording to the offence, the shackle being a piece 
 of wood from six inches to a foot long, tied to 
 
1 60 JOSEPH LANCASTER. 
 
 each leg ; and with these fetters the boy was 
 ordered to walk round and round the school- 
 room. And, by way of variety for Lancaster 
 was aware that ' familiarity breeds contempt/ 
 even in punishments a boy was occasionally put 
 into a sack or basket, and hoisted to the ceiling 
 in presence of all the rest, who laughed at the 
 ' bird in the cage/ Boys who came to school 
 with dirty faces had them washed before the 
 whole school by little girls, who accompanied 
 their ablutions with a gentle box on the ear. In 
 justice to Lancaster, it must be stated that many 
 of these absurd and injurious modes of penalty 
 were invented to avoid flogging, which he held in 
 great dislike ; and that latterly he came to discard 
 many of them himself ; though one is much 
 amused at seeing certain chapters in his tracts, 
 headed ' Of logs/ ' of shackles/ ' of the basket/ 
 ' of labels of disgrace.' 
 
 Before terminating this imaginary visit to Lan- 
 caster's school, it should be mentioned, to his 
 credit, that within its walls he strove to enable his 
 children to read the Bible, to understand its 
 meaning, to love it, and to take it as the guide of 
 their lives, at the same time studiously avoiding 
 the introduction of controverted theological points, 
 and everything peculiar to any sect or party, so that 
 the religious prejudices of the parents might not 
 
INTERVIEW WITH THE KING. ifii 
 
 be offended.* ' There is no saying,' observes Dr. 
 Donaldson, 'that his method might not have 
 gained the approbation of the whole nation had 
 he not united religious instruction with it. All 
 agreed that there should be religious instruction, 
 but then who was to settle what that religious in- 
 struction should be ? ' Hence arose the sectarian 
 storm referred to in the chapter on Dr. Bell, the 
 cry of the ' Church in danger ' having aroused 
 from their apathy the ' whole bench of bishops.' 
 
 Lancaster's fortunes reached their zenith in f 
 1805, when the king sent for him, and desired toi 
 have an account of his work. The interview is! 
 thus related by Corston, one of Lancaster's most 
 faithful friends : 
 
 ' On entering the royal presence, the king said, 
 " Lancaster, I have sent for you to give me an 
 account of your system of education, which I hear 
 has met with opposition. One master teach 500 
 children at the same time! How do you keep 
 them in order, Lancaster?" Lancaster replied, 
 " Please thy Majesty, by the same principle that 
 thy Majesty's army is kept in order by the 
 word of command." His Majesty replied, " Good, 
 good, it does not require an aged general to give 
 the command ; one of younger years can do it." 
 Lancaster observed that in his schools the teach- 
 
 * " Museum/' 
 L 
 
1 62 JOSEPH LANCASTER. 
 
 ing branch was performed by youths, who acted 
 as monitors. The king assented, and said, 
 "Good." Lancaster then described his system, 
 and he informed me that all present paid great 
 attention, and were highly delighted ; and as soon 
 as he had finished, his Majesty said, " Lancaster, 
 I highly approve of your system, and it is my 
 wish that every poor child in my dominions 
 should be- taught to read the Bible ; I will do 
 anything you wish to promote this object." ' 
 
 Royal subscriptions were given ; the example 
 was followed by many of the nobility, and, had 
 Lancaster been discreet in the management of 
 money, a career of honour and usefulness was 
 open to him. But this public applause in a 
 measure turned his head. Becoming impressed 
 with the idea that he was, under Providence, 
 destined to be the means of establishing a 
 universal system of instruction, he published tract 
 after tract in explanation of his system, and 
 proceeded to deliver lectures in all the principal 
 towns in the kingdom, illustrating his mode of 
 teaching by help of monitors who accompanied 
 him. In these journeys he occasionally met with 
 discouragements, but oftener with honour and 
 a cordial welcome ; and during a single year he 
 was able to say that a new school on his system 
 had been opened every week. 
 
SUCCESS TURNS HIS HEAD. 
 
 I6 3 
 
 He visited Ireland, also, and was the means 
 of establishing a model school in Dublin, which 
 was placed under the charge of a teacher of his 
 own training. Money flowed in upon him, ap- 
 parently in a perpetual stream. But this touched 
 one of the weakest points in Lancaster's character. 
 Instead of keeping a prudent reserve, he often 
 spent this money recklessly in treats and presents 
 to his scholars thus, writing on one occasion 
 from the country, in view of his own birthday, he 
 said, ' I wish all my children to have a plum 
 pudding and roast beef; do order it, and spend 
 a happy evening with them.' In the fulness 
 of his enthusiasm, also, and fired, perhaps, by 
 the success of Fellenberg, he attempted to extend 
 the monitorial system to agriculture, for which 
 purpose a large piece of waste land was placed 
 at his disposal by the Duke of Somerset. The 
 boys who broke up the land were divided into 
 classes, as in school, each under the charge 
 of a monitor ; everything was done by word of 
 command ; at the order, ' prepare to dig/ each 
 spade was grounded and a foot placed upon it; 
 at the word 'dig/ the spade was pressed into 
 the soil, and on the order ' turn/ every spade 
 was turned and the earth broken. It is needless 
 to state that this scheme proved an utter failure 
 in fact, Lancaster's affairs soon became irretriev- 
 
1 64 JOSEPH LANCASTER. 
 
 ably involved ; and the Borough Road school 
 seemed likely to sink into ruin, when, in 1808, 
 some benevolent gentlemen came forward, paid 
 his debts, and resolved themselves into a com- 
 mittee, under the title of the Royal Lancasterian 
 Institution, a name which was, in 1814, changed 
 into that of the British and Foreign School 
 Society. But this did not put an end to Lan- 
 caster's troubles. Though the society treated 
 him handsomely, and allowed him an ample 
 salary, they found that he would not work well 
 in harness. They insisted on a correct state- 
 ment of the income and expenditure of the 
 school; but Lancaster looked upon this business- 
 like proceeding as intolerable interference, and 
 one by one he quarrelled with them all, betook 
 himself finally in anger to Tooting, where he 
 commenced a private boarding-school, became 
 more deeply involved, and at length emigrated 
 to America in 1818. There his career was most 
 chequered and sad ; teaching and lecturing by 
 turns, at times in affluent circumstances, and at 
 others pinched by poverty, he passed on his un- 
 stable and fitful course, and finally died in 1838 
 from the effects of an accident in the streets of 
 New York. 
 
 The student, who peruses Lancaster's pamph- 
 lets, 'will look almost in vain for guidance 
 
LANCASTER 'S GREA T DESIRE. 1 65 
 
 as to the best methods of teaching, or as to 
 the right mode of presenting truth to a learner's 
 mind' ; but the impetus which he gave to popu- i 
 lar education was incalculable ; and he is in I 
 consequence fairly entitled to an honoured place 
 in the history of education.* Mr. Fitch, for many 
 years connected with the Borough Road College, j 
 estimates Lancaster's greatest work in the world) 
 to have been 'his vindication of a Christian I 
 and yet unsectarian system of education.' It 
 was his desire, as we have seen, that every child 
 in his school should be enabled to read and! 
 understand the Bible, but at the same time, he 
 carefully abstained from associating religion with 
 any sect or party. This scheme was not a trick 
 to secure the support of all parties, but ' it grew 
 out of the experience of a devout and earnest 
 man, who, loving his own form of worship with 
 passionate zeal, loved Christianity and the in- 
 terests of children more earnestly still.' 
 
 * Interesting memorials of Lancaster are preserved at 
 the Borough Road College, several of his monitors' silver 
 badges and medals being suspended in the Committee 
 Room, and an adjoining street has just been re-named in 
 honour of him. 
 
SAMUEL WILDERSPIN. 
 
 Origin of Infant Schools New Lanark Infant School the first 
 Others Established in London Wilderspin appointed Master 
 First Experiences Great Success Organisation of Infant 
 Schools The First Infant Mistress Wilderspin in Scot- 
 landStatus of the Scottish Teacher What an Infant 
 Teacher should be His Five Rules Teacher should follow 
 Nature The Child's Observing Powers The "Kinder- 
 garten" System Pictures Recommended Amusement with 
 Instruction. 
 
 THE credit of having been the first to originate 
 an infant school is generally given to Oberlin, 
 the pastor of Waldbach, in Alsace, who, among 
 the many marvellous acts of philanthropy by 
 which his life was distinguished, conceived the 
 happy idea of gathering together the children 
 of his parishioners for combined amusement and 
 instruction, while their parents were engaged at 
 their daily avocations. This was about the close 
 of the past century ; and, about the beginning 
 of the present, the same idea occurred to 
 Robert Owen, who, in order to keep the 
 
THE FIRST INFANT SCHOOL. 
 
 I6 7 
 
 children of his workers at the New Lanark 
 Mills out of mischief and of danger, caused them 
 to be gathered into a large apartment, where 
 they were partly fed and taught by several 
 women, under the superintendence of a Mr. 
 James Buchanan, the first infant master, whose 
 name is on record.* This was the first infant 
 school in Great Britain, and the plan was found 
 to be so beneficial, that several noblemen and 
 gentlemen, among whom were Lord Brougham 
 and the Marquis of Lansdowne, resolved to 
 establish a similar school in London, which 
 they did at Brewer's Green, Westminster. This 
 was the first infant school in England, and 
 according to the evidence of the then Lord 
 Chancellor, before a House of Commons Com- 
 mittee in 1834, was the first complete infant 
 school in the world. 
 
 1 The first infant school in this island, I believe 
 in the world/ said his lordship, ' was the one at 
 Brewer's Green Robert Owen's and Mr. Fel- 
 lenberg's, which gave the idea, having both been 
 formed in connection with an establishment 
 manufacturing or agricultural, and so neces- 
 sarily confined in their application ; ours being 
 everyday schools, where the children are neither 
 fed, nor in any way helped, except by instruction 
 * Wilderspin's " Infant Education," p. 67. 
 
!68 SAMUEL WILDERSPIN. 
 
 and training.'* Mr. Buchanan was taken from 
 New Lanark, to become master of the school 
 at Brewer's Green ; and an acquaintanceship, 
 which he formed with Samuel Wilderspin, 
 ended in the latter relinquishing his business 
 pursuits, and taking charge of a similar, but 
 more commodious establishment, opened in 
 Spitalfields, in 1820. The term ' asylum' had 
 been the name applied to Oberlin's and Owen's 
 institutions, and this term is still, I believe, re- 
 tained in France ; but Wilderspin suggested 
 the happier title of infant school, and advised 
 that it should be confined to children from the 
 ages of two to seven. He was naturally fond 
 of children, and longed to do them good ; but, 
 being without experience and training in the 
 management of numbers, the first difficulties 
 he encountered were somewhat amusing. The 
 following is an account, in his own words, of one 
 of his earliest school days. 
 
 'When the mothers had left, a few of the 
 children, who had been previously at a dame 
 school, sat quietly ; but the rest, missing their 
 parents, crowded about the door. One little 
 fellow, finding he could not open it, set up 
 a loud cry of " Mammy, mammy ! " and in 
 raising this delightful sound, all the rest sim- 
 * Hartley's " Schools for the People," p. 108. 
 
1 MAMMY, MAMMY!' !6g 
 
 ultaneously joined. My wife, who, though 
 reluctant at first, had determined, on my 
 accepting the situation, to give me her utmost 
 aid, tried with myself to calm the tumult ; but 
 our efforts were utterly in vain. The paroxysm 
 of sorrow increased instead of subsiding, and 
 so intolerable did it become, that she could 
 endure it no longer, and left the room ; and at 
 length, exhausted by effort, anxiety, and noise, 
 I was compelled to follow her example, leaving 
 my unfortunate pupils in one dense mass, cry- 
 ing, yelling, and kicking against the door/ 
 
 * I will not attempt to describe my feelings ; 
 but, ruminating on what I then considered 
 egregious folly in supposing that any two per- 
 sons could manage so large a number of infants, 
 I was struck by the sight of a cap of my wife's, 
 adorned with coloured ribbon, lying on the table ; 
 and observing from the window a clothes-prop, it 
 occurred to me that I might put the cap upon it, 
 return to the school, and try the effect. The con- 
 fusion when I entered was tremendous ; but on 
 raising the pole surmounted by the cap, all the 
 children, to my great satisfaction, were instantly 
 silent, and when any hapless wight seemed dis- 
 posed to renew the noise, a few shakes of the 
 prop restored tranquillity, and perhaps produced 
 a laugh. The same thing, however, will not do 
 
170 SAMUEL WILDERSPIN. 
 
 long ; the charms of this wonderful instrument, 
 therefore, soon vanished, and there would have 
 been a sad relapse, but for the marchings, gam- 
 bols, and antics, I found it necessary to adopt, 
 and which at last brought the hour of twelve, 
 to my greater joy than can easily be conceived. 
 
 * Revolving these circumstances, I felt that that 
 memorable morning had not passed in vain. I 
 had, in fact, v found the clue. It was now evident 
 that the senses of the children must be engaged, 
 that the great secret of training them was to 
 descend to their level, and become a child ; and 
 that the error had been to expect in infancy what 
 is only the product of after years.' * 
 
 The hint thus given led to his adoption of 
 appropriate action as an accompaniment of infant 
 lessons, a principle which is now largely carried 
 out in all good infant schools. Wilderspin cer- 
 tainly followed to perfection the advice given 
 by Abbott, that a teacher should make a study 
 of his profession, and found himself inventing 
 or trying, week by week, and day by day, some 
 new school method, to enumerate all of which 
 would only be to repeat what may be seen at 
 the present time in the highly cultivated system 
 of infant methods, in which interest and amuse- 
 ment pervade everything said or done. His 
 * " Early Discipline Illustrated," pp. 3, 4. 
 
GREA T SUCCESS. ! 7 1 
 
 enthusiasm and knack as a teacher were not 
 without their reward. His school became so 
 popular that, though it was situated in one of 
 the lowest and most obscure parts of the metro- 
 polis, the parents sent their children without 
 solicitation ; public attention was drawn to it,, 
 and visitors from all parts flocked to see the 
 pleasing novelty, Wilderspin recording, with 
 pardonable vanity, that 'it was no uncommon 
 thing for several carriages to be seen stand- 
 ing at the door/ One of the early fruits 
 of his success was the formation of the London 
 Infant School Society, in 1824, and the estab- 
 lishment of infant schools in various parts of 
 the country. Wilderspin was called from his 
 duties as a teacher, and requested to lecture 
 and found schools in the metropolis and else- 
 where. The work which he did in this line 
 fairly entitles him to be styled, ' organiser-in- 
 chief of infant schools in Great Britain/ An 
 account of his visits to the chief towns of Eng- 
 land, Scotland, and Ireland a most interesting 
 and amusing narrative was published by him 
 under the title of " Early Discipline Illustrated " ; 
 and from this I quote freely in this paper, as well 
 as from his other important work entitled " Infant 
 Education." 
 
 Mrs. Wilderspin, whom he lovingly designates 
 
172 
 
 SAMUEL WILDERSPIN. 
 
 ' the first infant schoolmistress/ and who seems to 
 have had as much faith in her husband as Madame 
 Pestalozzi had in hers, with the additional merit 
 of being a helpmate to him in his scholastic 
 duties, entered upon charge of the school in his 
 absence, and with unwearied patience and as- 
 siduity, kept the 200 children at their daily tasks, 
 with no assistance save that of a daughter, then a 
 child. The narrative of her labours has a touch- 
 ing end. Worn out by her exertions, the ' infant's 
 friend ' succumbed, and amid the tears of a thou- 
 sand parents and children, who crowded the streets 
 to pay respect to her memory, she was laid in 
 the grave only four years after they had come as 
 strangers to the neighbourhood, when many of the 
 mourners had loaded them with insult and deri- 
 sion, and even pelted them with mud. 
 
 The shock nearly terminated Wilderspin's own 
 existence ; but after a dangerous and length- 
 ened illness he was spared to be the agent in 
 opening the schools referred to. It may be 
 interesting to mention that David Stow, founder 
 of Normal Schools, was the first to invite 
 Wilderspin to Scotland, an invitation which he 
 readily accepted, though the journey from Lon- 
 don to Glasgow, which he made on horseback, 
 occupied eight days, and was not unaccompanied 
 by danger. He laboured for several weeks in 
 
THE FIRST EXAMINATION. 
 
 173 
 
 getting the Drygate School, the first infant school 
 in this city, into order, and relates how nearly 
 the use of the ball frame had brought both him- 
 self and the school into disrepute. A fond mother 
 happened to ask her child on his returning home, 
 ' Weel, Sandy, what hae ye been at ? ' to which 
 Sandy as naturally replied, ' Eh, mither, we've 
 been countin' the beads.' The mother's native 
 horror of popery was aroused, the alarm spread 
 like fire, and, but for opportune explanation, the 
 school would have been entirely deserted. 
 
 At the end of a month, these little ragamuffins 
 were publicly examined in the Gaelic Chapel, 
 at the west end of the city,* and about a mile 
 from the Drygate. The children, who were from 
 eighteen months to six years of age, and were 
 unable to walk so far, were conveyed in carts, 
 adorned with green boughs, guarded on each side 
 by the Glasgow police, and followed by crowds 
 of people. Inside of the church the audience 
 numbered about 1,000, and, in their presence, 
 questions on 'form, size, and position' were put 
 and answered. A gentleman asked whether the 
 chandelier was suspended or supported, and on 
 a correct answer being made, he asked them to 
 tell him the difference, whereupon a little boy 
 
 * Presumed to be St. Golumba Church, Ingram Street, 
 the site of the British Linen Company's Bank. 
 
174 
 
 SAMUEL WILDERSPIN. 
 
 took from his pocket a piece of string, at the 
 end of which was a button ; placing the button 
 on the palm of his hand, he answered, 'That is 
 supported,' and holding the end of the string, 
 so as to let the button fall, he said, ' That is 
 suspended.' (If Mr. Stow was present, he must 
 have been delighted at this juvenile example 
 of ' picturing out.') The interrogator, after 
 various questions, wished the children to men- 
 tion something, not previously named, which 
 was perpendicular, when, after a brief pause, a 
 little black -eyed boy, whose head had been 
 resting on his hand, shouted out, ' Ye 're ane 
 yersel.' The effect of this was so ludicrous, as 
 to disconcert the questioner for a little, but 
 soon rallying, he said, ' Suppose I were to strike 
 Mr. Wilderspin, and knock him down, would 
 he be perpendicular then ? ' ' No, he 'd be hori- 
 zontal/ was the prompt reply. 
 
 Some time after this, a class of children was 
 taken to Paisley, Greenock, Rothesay, Edin- 
 burgh, and other places, which led to the 
 beneficial results mentioned in the following 
 chapter on Stow, whose biographer keeps 
 Wilderspin's co-operation and success very 
 much in the background. Wilderspin travelled 
 over the greater part of the country to Aber- 
 deen, Inverness, and Dingwall, and had numer- 
 
FEMALE TE AC PIERS. 
 
 175 
 
 ous opportunities of observing the manners 
 and customs of the people. One of those 
 he noticed has, happily, no existence now, 
 or exists only in benighted districts, and that 
 is, a decided prejudice against female teachers, 
 to whom parents, he says, could not be persuaded 
 to send their children on any account ; and to 
 schools presided over by a master and mistress 
 they would only send them on the understanding 
 that the former was to perform the intellectual 
 part, while the latter was to attend to the mater- 
 nal department of morals and manners. Wilder- 
 spin's own opinion was, that women are not so fit 
 as men to be conductors of infant schools, and 
 that there should be in every school a master 
 and a mistress a mode of organisation which 
 now prevails in every mixed school. 
 
 Since Wilderspin's time, women have come to 
 be employed more and more in the work of 
 teaching ; and in infant and elementary work 
 they seem likely to supersede men altogether. 
 With all deference to his views, might we not 
 adduce the great success of his wife and daughter 
 in the conducting of the Spitalfields School while 
 he was absent in the provinces, as a weighty 
 argument against him ? He noticed, with grati- 
 fication, the superior standing of the Scottish 
 schoolmaster to that of his own countrymen. 
 
176 SAMUEL WILDERSPIN. 
 
 Whereas, in England, his position was far from 
 being respectable, and was in some cases humili- 
 ating, in Scotland he was treated with respect, 
 was received into the best society, was held next 
 in estimation to the minister, and had generally a 
 vacation of two months in duration, during which 
 he could repair to the sea-shore, and recruit the 
 health and strength necessary for the discharge 
 of his important and responsible duties.* 
 
 The germs of Stow's training system are un- 
 doubtedly to be found in the pages of Wilder- 
 spin, e. g., Wilderspin remarks, ' The first thing 
 we attempt to do in an infant school is to set 
 the children thinking, to get them to examine, 
 compare, and judge of all those matters which 
 their dawning intellects are capable of master- 
 ing.' ( And again, ' As the fundamental prin- 
 ciple of the system, I would say Let the children 
 think for themselves. If they arrive at erroneous 
 conclusions, assist them in attaining the truth, but 
 let them with such assistance arrive at the truth 
 by their own exertions. Little good would be 
 done if you should say to a child, " That is wrong, 
 this is right," unless you enable the child to 
 perceive wherein the error of the one and the 
 truth of the other consist.' (p. 147.) 
 
 * " Early Discipline," p. 117. 
 t " Infant Education/' p. 146. 
 
THE MIXED SYSTEM. 177 
 
 This method, of course, dates as far back as 
 the time of Socrates, whose dialogues afford 
 copious illustration of this mode of teaching. 
 
 Like Stow, Wilderspin is strongly in favour of 
 the mixed system, remarking that in his experi- 
 ence, little girls shew more susceptibility and 
 kindness, and excel in all that relates to the 
 affections, while boys are not so soon excited, but 
 are far more energetic. The influence of the 
 one sex on the other cannot but be highly 
 ^beneficial. When associated, opportunities occur 
 for the exhibition of their peculiar characters, 
 and the invigorating of their respective feelings. 
 ' I never knew a little girl/ he says, ' fall on the 
 playground, without a little boy helping her up ; 
 or a little boy hurt himself without some little 
 girl or girls running to soothe and assist him/ 
 (p. 105.) 
 
 In regard to the moral training of the play- 
 ground, the views of the two men coincide in a 
 striking way. After remarking that for purposes 
 of health the playground is an invaluable adjunct 
 to every school, and that fruit trees and flowers 
 should be planted in it, to train the children to 
 honesty and to cultivate their taste, Wilderspin 
 says, ' It is there the child shews itself in its 
 true character, and thereby gives the master an 
 
 opportunity of nipping in the bud its evil pro- 
 
 M 
 
178 SAMUEL IVILDERSPIN. 
 
 pensities '; and again, ' For the purpose of obser- 
 vation, the playground will afford an admirable 
 opportunity, and it is on this account, as well as 
 that it affords exercise and amusement to the 
 children, a most indispensable appendage to an 
 infant school. It is here the child will shew its 
 character in a true light. The playground may 
 be compared to the world, where the little 
 children are left to themselves, and where it may 
 be seen what effects their education has pro- 
 duced ; for if they are fond of fighting and 
 quarrelling, it is there that they will do it ; if 
 they are artful, it is there they will seek to 
 practise their cunning, and this will give the 
 master an opportunity of applying the proper 
 remedy ; whereas, if kept in school (which they 
 must be if there be no playground), these evil 
 inclinations will never manifest themselves until 
 they get into the street, and consequently the 
 master will have no opportunity of attempting a 
 cure. I have seen many children who behaved 
 very orderly in the school, but the moment they 
 .got into the playground they manifested the 
 principle of self-love to such a degree that they 
 would wish all the rest of the children to be sub- 
 servient to them, and on these refusing to let 
 them bear rule, would begin to use force, in order 
 to compel them to comply. This is conduct that 
 
FIVE SHORT RULES. 
 
 1 79 
 
 ought to be checked, and what time so proper as 
 the first stages of infancy ?' (pp. 139, 140.) 
 
 Both authors agree as to the/ object for which 
 they were desirous to see the blessings of educa- 
 tion widely diffused viz., the moral training of 
 the children of the poor. Both coincide in think- 
 ing that a great deal of the crime and misery 
 existing in this country might be decreased by 
 means of early moral training. In this respect 
 they evince a spirit similar to that of Pestalozzi. 
 
 In regard to the qualifications of infant 
 teachers, Wilderspin is of opinion that the 
 virtues of ' patience, gentleness, perseverance, 
 self-possession, energy, knowledge of human 
 nature, and, above all, piety, are requisite to 
 ensure success.' Indeed, he says, we cannot be 
 too circumspect in the choice of the persons to 
 whom we commit the care and education of the 
 rising generation. For the guidance of teachers 
 he proposes the following five short rules, which 
 experience, had recorhmended to himself: 
 
 I. Never to correct a child in anger. 
 
 II. Never to deprive a child of ariything with- 
 out returning it again. 
 
 III. Never to break a promise. 
 
 IV. Never to overlook a fault. 
 
 V. In all things to set before the children an 
 example worthy of imitation, (p. 106.) 
 
SAMUEL WILDERSPIN. 
 
 In another place he says, 'The first grand 
 object of the master and mistress of an infant 
 school is to win the love of the children by 
 banishing all slavish fear. One kind action 
 influences a child more than a volume of words. 
 The fundamental principle of the infant school 
 system is love/ 
 
 He makes no inconsiderable contribution to 
 the science of education when he says, * The art 
 of education is to follow nature, to assist and 
 imitate her in her way of rearing men. The 
 ancient inhabitants of the Baleares followed 
 nature in the manner of teaching their children 
 to be good archers, when they hung their dinner 
 aloft by a thread, and left them to bring it down 
 by their skill in archery.' 
 
 He is at one with Pestalozzi in insisting that 
 a knowledge of things should precede a know- 
 ledge of words; let the children examine into and 
 find out the nature and properties of objects, and 
 there is no fear of their remaining ignorant of 
 their names. * One of the teacher's duties, then, 
 should be to excite a spirit of inquiry in the 
 child, to foster that inquisitive spirit which is 
 so natural to young children ; and, having excited 
 a spirit of inquiry, you should next endeavour to 
 direct it to proper objects such objects as are 
 suited for investigation by its infantile faculties ; 
 
KINDERGAR TEN SYSTEM. 1 8 1 
 
 these, of course, will be things which have rela- 
 tion to its animal senses ; the nature and pro- 
 perties of bodies, ascertainable by the application 
 of those senses, &c. Having induced it to 
 examine for itself, you are now to elicit the ideas 
 excited by each object respectively ; ascertain the 
 child's notion on the subject, and having thus 
 brought it to put its ideas into a definitive shape 
 in language ; having taught it to use its reason 
 and judgment freely, and to express its notions 
 fearlessly and candidly it matters not how 
 simple the subject you are to attempt the cor- 
 rection of its erroneous notions, by putting forth 
 your own, in as simple a way as possible not so 
 as to induce the child to give up its own opinions 
 and adopt yours in their place, but in such a way 
 as to direct its reasoning process to the attain- 
 ment of truth ; to induce a comparison and con- 
 sequent discovery of its own error.' (p. 149.) 
 
 Suitable exercise for the observing powers of 
 children is afforded by the lessons on weight, form, 
 number, and colour given after the manner of 
 Froebel in his Kindergarten system, which should 
 be studied by every infant teacher in supplement 
 to that of Wilderspin and others. The fields and 
 hedges around every country school afford abun- 
 dant material in their wealth of plants and flowers 
 for enabling the skilful teacher to cultivate the 
 
1 82 SAMUEL WILDERSPIN. 
 
 observing faculties of her children ; in fact, as 
 may be fully perceived by the perusal of " On 
 the Culture of the Observing Powers of Chil- 
 dren/' by Miss Youmans, botany yields to no 
 other science in the facilities it affords in this 
 department. The encouragement held out by 
 the Education Department, in the shape of 
 ample pecuniary grants to infant schools, should 
 make it an easy matter for school managers to 
 have their schools abundantly furnished with 
 objects, specimens, and pictorial illustrations. 
 
 In respect to methods of teaching, Wilderspin, 
 as before mentioned, was the inventor of the 
 ball-frame, and is a strong advocate for the 
 teaching of numbers from the concrete to the 
 abstract. He gives excellent advice on the 
 teaching of infants by means of pictures, whether 
 of Scripture incidents, or of natural history, or of 
 trades and manufactures ; thus, when a Bible 
 story, such as the raising of Lazarus from the 
 dead, is the subject of lesson, a picture of the 
 same should be suspended in view of the children. 
 The series of pictures which Wilderspin used was 
 twenty-four in number ; a variety was afforded 
 by the children being required at times to find 
 out the pictures that indicated various incidents, 
 which the teacher named, such as ' point out the 
 picture of the Nativity of Jesus Christ': the 
 
USE OF PICTURES. jSj 
 
 children were always delighted with this mode of 
 teaching, and would of their own accord crave 
 information on a new picture, and thus a desire 
 to read the Bible for ' themselves was early and 
 strongly implanted in their minds. Wilderspin 
 cautions the teacher against exposing all his 
 pictures to view at once and at all times ; for, 
 in this case, 'familiarity breeds contempt.' The 
 pictures should be brought to view only when 
 required as subjects for the daily lesson. He 
 also recommends the adoption of object-lesson 
 cards, such as are in general use at the present 
 time, and which, coupled with a small cabinet of 
 objects, are of great service in enabling the child 
 to understand what it reads in the ordinary lesson 
 book. 
 
 Wilderspin's whole system is a combination 
 of amusement with instruction. ' Make your 
 system interesting, lively, and inspiriting, and 
 your scholars will neither be able nor willing to 
 slumber over it.' The principle is carried to 
 an absurd extent in the rhyming lessons on 
 weights and measures, &c. 
 
 ' Two pints will make one quart, 
 Four quarts one gallon strong ; 
 Some drink but little, some too much, 
 To drink too much is wrong/ 
 
 And the stanza in wine, oil, and spirit measure : 
 
SAMUEL WILDERSPIN. 
 
 ( A little wine within 
 Oft cheers the mind that 's sad ; 
 But too much brandy, rum, or gin 
 No doubt is very bad.' 
 
 A knowledge of weights and measures is better 
 taught by having specimens of these in view of 
 the children when lessons involving their use 
 are being given. 
 
 This and other defects in teaching became 
 magnified under teachers who had no training, 
 and but limited experience ; so that the advocates 
 and promoters of infant schools throughout the 
 country soon became painfully aware that some- 
 thing more must be done than opening schools 
 and providing teachers, if their influence for good 
 was to meet public expectation. This led to the 
 starting of an institution for training teachers, 
 as the only way of really improving the infant 
 schools in the country, and to the formation of 
 the Home and Colonial Infant School Society in 
 1836. 
 
 Wilderspin may be classed among the many 
 educationists who 
 
 1 Omnes illacrimabiles 
 Urguentur ignotique longa 
 Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.'* 
 
 No one, as far as I am aware, has written a 
 * Horace, Odes IV. 9. 
 
THE ENTHUSIASM OF WILDERSPIN. ^5 
 
 biographical notice of him ; and the dates of his 
 birth and of his death are consequently un- 
 known ; but, after perusing his works, I am of 
 opinion that the name of this patriarch of infant 
 teaching, who struck the proper key-note in infant 
 education, and whose wonderful enthusiasm and 
 energy gave an impetus to the foundation of 
 numerous schools in this country, should not be 
 allowed to go down to oblivion.* 
 
 * James Simpson, author of a work on " Popular Educa- 
 tion," and convener of the Edinburgh Infant School Society, 
 passes the following eulogy on Wilderspin, * I feel it not 
 only a duty but a delight to devote a note to this singularly 
 meritorious individual, whom it concerns the public to 
 know, before they are called upon, as they must be, to 
 approve of his receiving a national tribute for the benefits 
 he has conferred on his fellow-men, the toils he has cheer- 
 fully endured, the pittance he has generally conditioned 
 as bare livelihood, and last, but not least, the obstructions 
 and persecutions with which his enlightened and benevolent 
 labours have been met. If an infant school is to be 
 organized in the extreme north of Scotland, Mr. Wilderspin 
 will come from Cheltenham where he resides, for the 
 humblest travelling expenses and means of subsistence, and 
 devote six weeks to the training of the pupils and teachers, 
 while by his lectures and zeal he never fails to give such 
 an impetus to the whole region which he visits, as often gives 
 him several schools to set agoing before he is called else- 
 where ; he is ready for any infant educational enterprise 
 to the sacrifice of every selfish consideration, and once 
 offered himself to go to the West Indies to organize schools 
 for the children of the negroes, if he should perish in the 
 attempt. 7 (p. 149.) 
 
DAVID STOW. 
 
 Sabbath School Teaching Experience in the Salt market Opens a 
 Model School The First Normal School Its Early Working 
 Criticism Lessons Bible Teaching Owen's Visit Second 
 Normal School The " Training " System Visit to England 
 A " Training Lesson " Picturing Out Bible Lesson 
 "Pictured Out" Sympathy of Numbers The "Mixed" 
 System Results in America The Gallery and Playground 
 His Influence on Education. 
 
 DAVID STOW, one of the few original educa- 
 tionists whom Scotland has produced, and whose 
 name is associated with the institution of training 
 colleges for teachers, was born at Paisley, in 1793. 
 He came of a very respectable family, and was 
 contemporary with. one or two well known natives 
 of the place, among whom were Professor Wilson 
 (the ' Christopher North' of ." Blackwood's Maga- 
 zine "), and the poet Tannahill. Having received 
 his early education at Paisley Grammar School, 
 he became connected in 1811 with a large com- 
 mercial house in Glasgow. Though the best 
 society in that city was open to him, he preferred 
 
EXPERIMENTS. \ 87 
 
 to devote his leisure time to the instruction of 
 the poor, in his self-denying love and labour for 
 whom he may be fairly likened to PestalozzL 
 Stow's life is indeed a wonderful example of 
 what an ordinary citizen, not trained to teaching r 
 or deriving any pecuniary advantage from his 
 educational efforts, can do towards spreading the 
 blessings of education. 
 
 In reading the memoir of his life, one is struck 
 by the similarity of the experience, that turned 
 his attention to teaching, and that of Robert 
 Raikes, originator of Sabbath Schools. Having 
 to pass daily through the Saltmarket, his spirit 
 was roused within him at the misery, ignorance r 
 and vice which he witnessed, and he earnestly 
 longed to do something which might help to 
 overcome these evils. A short experience taught 
 him that it would be useless to attempt a refor- 
 mation of the old, and he accordingly resolved 
 to try his first experiment upon the young. This 
 experiment was in the field of Sabbath school 
 teaching. Having hired a room in the Salt- 
 market, he began what he called his 'deep sea 
 fishing ' among the poorest families in the neigh- 
 bourhood, inviting the children to meet him on 
 the following Sabbath. Twenty-eight boys and 
 girls, of ages varying from eight to fourteen 
 years, responded to the call, of whom five only 
 
!88 DAVID STOW. 
 
 could tell the name of the first man, or that there 
 had been a first man. * They were at the 
 same time as unruly a set of children as could 
 well be imagined, and his first experiences, as 
 related by his biographer, were sufficiently dis- 
 couraging. 
 
 ' On the night of his opening his school, in 
 his selected locality, he encountered much rude- 
 ness. No sooner was the class arranged, and 
 had prayer begun, than the lights were extin- 
 guished. When rekindled, Mr. Stow was alone, 
 the class had escaped. He cheerfully resumed 
 his visiting of every family, and without uttering 
 a single complaint, he won back all his pupils, 
 and secured obedience. 
 
 ' A bold and restless boy, ragged and bare- 
 footed, had entered the class ; lines, the shadows 
 of cunning, were already traced on a naturally 
 frank and open countenance. Placed on the 
 third seat from the front, the temptation was 
 great, and he yielded to it; having ingeniously 
 taken hold of a large pin with his toes, he 
 darted it against the bare feet and legs of as 
 many as he could reach of those before him ; 
 they leaped yelling from their seats, and he 
 stood in the midst of them, apparently alarmed 
 by this unexpected turmoil. 
 
 * Stow's " Training System," loth edit, p. 50. 
 
FIRST TRAINING SCHOOL. 
 
 1 On discovering his conduct, Mr. Stow neither 
 denounced nor expelled him, nor did he adopt 
 the clumsy expedient of sending him to another 
 seat ; but he reasoned with him as to the pain 
 he had thoughtlessly given to his classmates, 
 and as to its continuance after his fun ended. 
 He appealed to his sympathy, and won it. 
 In the course of a short time he gave him 
 charge of the candle lights there was then no 
 gas and by no awkwardness in snuffing them 
 were they ever afterwards extinguished. The 
 boy became an enthusiastic scholar. Impatience 
 in the teacher would have, in all likelihood, de- 
 stroyed that boy's character.'* 
 
 In this small Sabbath school, which was opened 
 in 1816, the leading principles of Stow's system 
 of teaching were first practically developed. An 
 experience of ten years' duration, however, 
 brought him to the conclusion that the instruc- 
 tion given on the Sabbath-day was apt to be 
 effaced by the evil influences of the other six days 
 of the week, and to remedy this, he opened in 
 1826 a week-day moral training school, which he 
 intended to be a model establishment for others 
 of the kind in the city and throughout the coun- 
 try. The building, which was situated in Drygate 
 Street, was capable of accommodating about 100 
 * " Memoir of Stow," by the Rev. Dr. 
 
190 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 pupils, and gave facilities for training a few 
 students, male and female, who were meant to 
 extend the new educational system to country 
 districts and villages, but chiefly in the larger 
 towns. One or two infant schools had shortly 
 before this been established in London, and to 
 the most important of these, taught by Mr. 
 Wilderspin, Mr. Stow paid a personal and ob- 
 servant visit. At his suggestion, Mr. Wilderspin 
 came to Scotland and delivered some lectures 
 in Glasgow and Edinburgh, which were of great 
 service to the cause of infant education. 
 
 The Glasgow Education Society also, with 
 whom Mr. Stow was associated, being desirous 
 to spread a knowledge of the modes of teaching 
 practised under his auspices, adopted Lancas- 
 ter's plan, and sent a class of children, accom- 
 panied by a master and mistress, to visit different 
 towns and villages ; and, in several instances, such 
 an impression was produced, that schools on the 
 training system were at once established.* An 
 educational society was originated in Edinburgh, 
 and, in compliance with an invitation, the model 
 class set out, in 1829, on what was then a long 
 and fatiguing journey by stage-coach, and re- 
 ceived in the capital a cordial and flattering 
 welcome, being exhibited before admiring audi- 
 * " Memoir," p. 88. 
 
THE FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL. IO/I 
 
 ences in the Waterloo Rooms, for three succes- 
 sive days. This led to the establishment of the 
 Edinburgh Model Infant School, and to the 
 awakening of public attention to the subject of 
 elementary education. 
 
 One of the grandest results of the public in- 
 terest thus excited, was the establishment of a 
 Normal school for the training of teachers in the 
 most approved methods of teaching, to which the 
 Drygate School, and a juvenile school in the 
 parish of St. John's, which Mr. Stow had sub- 
 sequently opened, \vere both transferred. The 
 foundation-stone of this institution, which is now 
 known under the name of the Glasgow Church 
 of Scotland Normal School, and is situated in 
 Dundas Vale, New City Road, was laid on I4th 
 November, 1836, and the building was finished 
 in its present complete state in 1838. The cost 
 of the site and building was 15,700, of which 
 the Committee of Council on Education granted 
 nearly two-thirds viz., 9,500. The institution 
 stands within an area of about an acre, the 
 vacant space being laid out in flower-plots and 
 play-grounds for the students and children. Of 
 this institution Mr. Stow was for several years 
 the presiding genius, his system of training being 
 carried out both in the instruction of the chil- 
 dren and in the preparation of the students 
 
jg 2 DAVID STOW. 
 
 for the vocation of teachers. Now was fulfilled 
 the great desire he had cherished for years. 
 The schoolmaster could now be trained to his 
 calling, as the mechanic, the sailor, the soldier, 
 and the lawyer had formerly been ; the candi- 
 date-teacher could see a proper system of teach- 
 ing in practice ; he could have it explained to 
 him by suitable trainers; and, most important 
 of all, he could put his own hand to the work, 
 and become skilled in the art. That former 
 state of things had passed away in which the 
 teacher had been left to train himself, and had 
 no model school to look at, far less a Normal 
 institution to be trained in.* 
 
 The number of students received into train- 
 ing during the earlier years was, of course, 
 limited, seldom exceeding forty to fifty, while 
 an attendance of three months only was required. 
 It was not till 1855 that a two years' course 
 was introduced, under the auspices of the Com- 
 mittee of Council, and it was nearly ten years 
 later before this course was made compulsory. 
 Students of both sexes were received from the 
 beginning, and while the proportion of males to 
 females is now generally about equal, such was 
 not the case at first, for I find that in 1836 
 the proportion was ten to one. In reference to 
 * ' Training System," p. 10. 
 
PRIVATE CRITICISMS. 
 
 193 
 
 the means adopted for the professional train- 
 ing of the students, I make the following quo- 
 tation from Dr. Fraser, who was himself a 
 student : 
 
 ' In the working of the institution Mr. Stow 
 introduced two methods of culture, which had 
 the best possible effect in giving the students a 
 kindlier interest in one another, and in reveal- 
 ing whatever excellencies might be possessed 
 by them. The one method was "private criti- 
 cisms," and the other, " public lessons," given 
 weekly. Both were regulated by Mr. Stow him- 
 self. 
 
 * In the first or "private criticisms" the stu- 
 dents were seated in their gallery, and answered 
 as children, while, in succession, their fellow- 
 students gave them lessons in reading, spelling, 
 arithmetic, or catechetical exercises, under the 
 guidance of Mr. Stow and the Rector. The 
 " criticism " was given during the lesson ; manner, 
 matter, look, intonation, forms of questions, were 
 all referred to, exhibited, corrected with gentle- 
 ness, and always most effectively. The females 
 gave lessons in a separate hall, and were similarly 
 criticised and guided. 
 
 ' The second method of practical culture 
 was a somewhat severe but beneficial ordeal ; 
 the resources of eveiy student were taxed 
 
194 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 by it to the very utmost ; to the ambi- 
 tious and energetic it gave the best outlet 
 for distinction, and to the timid confidence. 
 There was, perhaps, no part of the training 
 of the students more attractive to a stranger, 
 when permitted to enjoy a privilege which, for 
 obvious reasons, was rarely granted, than the 
 public " criticism lessons." The plan originated 
 by Mr. Stow was so controlled by him as to 
 prove most effective. But for his firmness and 
 kindly bearing it might have been the source 
 of irritating personal rivalry. To four students 
 a lesson each was prescribed a week before it 
 was required, that it might be carefully prepared. 
 The four lessons generally embraced a Scripture 
 narrative or emblem ; an object ; reading, with 
 explanations ; and a fact or law in science. 
 When the children were seated in the gallery, 
 and the students had assembled in their presence, 
 each of the four students in his turn gave his 
 lesson, ten or twelve minutes being allowed ; and 
 the teachers noted not only every defect in pro- 
 nunciation, in manner, in the arrangement of the 
 lessons, in the ellipses formed, or in the method 
 of questioning, but also all that was commend- 
 able. It was a trying time ; but these respective 
 exercises gave the student greater confidence and 
 case in the subsequent management of his own 
 
REVIEW OF WORK DONE. 
 
 195 
 
 school, and constrained each to study the lessons 
 given, and to try the best means of rivetting 
 attention. No suggestions were made in the 
 presence of the scholars. The students, the 
 head-masters of the departments, the Rector, 
 and Mr. Stow adjourned to the students' hall, 
 when, Mr. Stow or the Rector presiding, the four 
 who had given lessons on the preceding week, 
 and had been criticised, began, in turn, the re- 
 view of the lessons given, and spoke for a limited 
 time. Others followed. No one who has listened 
 to the lessons and the subsequent criticisms can 
 have forgotten the frank, off-hand, hearty com- 
 mendation, the gentle rebukes, the sometimes 
 subtle and sometimes broad humour of the 
 more experienced critics, and the timid, half- 
 hesitating remarks of beginners. Sometimes 
 the lessons were analysed, and discussion sus- 
 tained in such a way as to show how deeply 
 some of the teachers were inquiring into the 
 philosophy of education, and making the hu- 
 man mind their study. They were thus taught 
 to speak accurately, and with ease ; to observe 
 closely, to treat each other as gentlemen, and 
 to think. To no part of Mr. Stow's labours, 
 in the practical training of teachers, is greater 
 importance to be attached than to this. It con- 
 tributed greatly to the subsequent efficiency of the 
 
I0y 6 DAVID STOW. 
 
 schoolmaster, and diffused a higher "esprit de 
 corps!" (pp. 156-159). 
 
 The system of criticism lessons thus described 
 is still carried on, and is pre-eminently useful for 
 the purposes of training, and calling attention 
 to principles. The practice of private criticism, 
 adopted by Mr. Stow, is, however, in my opinion, 
 liable to many objections, and I think the custom, 
 now adopted, of introducing a class of children at 
 all the criticism lessons is much to be preferred. 
 When the children retire from the room, the 
 students criticise the various lessons freely, point- 
 ing out in what respect each teacher has departed 
 from recognised principles. In giving the lessons 
 the students are instructed to keep in view two 
 very important objects first, to train the observ- 
 ing powers of the children, and second, to convey 
 some useful knowledge. Many of the lessons 
 thus given afford excellent specimens of how 
 useful information, on common objects, can be 
 presented to children in a very attractive form. 
 
 The great feature of Mr. Stow's institution 
 was the Bible teaching, which attracted visi- 
 tors from all parts. Among others, came the 
 celebrated Robert Owen, l the well-known So- 
 cialist Reformer/ and the originator in Great 
 Britain of infant schools, the promoters of the 
 London schools above mentioned having taken 
 
FREE CHURCH NORMAL SCHOOL. 
 
 197 
 
 their model from his. On Owen's mind, accord- 
 ing to Dr. Fraser, who relates the incident 
 of his visit in a touching manner, a very 
 serious impression was produced by the vivid 
 word-painting of the Scripture-lesson given 
 on the occasion by Mr. Stow himself. ' His 
 features changed. At first listless, he became 
 earnestly attentive. His whole aspect betokened 
 deep emotion, and ere the lesson was closed, the 
 tears coursed down his cheeks. What secret 
 springs were touched, what deep sympathies 
 were evoked, and pulsed for an instant through 
 that man's soul, no one can tell. His impassive 
 calmness soon returned ; but he left with a sadder 
 look and deeper thoughtfulness than when he 
 came.' (p. 130.) 
 
 In consequence of circumstances that succeeded 
 the Disruption, Mr. Stow was obliged to resign 
 possession of this Institution to the General 
 Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and on 
 the 8th of May, 1845, ne > along with his fellow- 
 directors, the teachers, 50 students, and 700 chil- 
 dren, marched out of the building, and founded 
 the Glasgow Free Church Normal School in 
 Cowcaddens, over which he continued to preside 
 till the day of his death in 1864. 
 
 The two institutions, thus founded by his 
 exertions, still flourish side by side, both doing 
 
198 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 valuable service in the training of teachers, and 
 faithfully fulfilling the object for which they were 
 established. The reader will excuse my having 
 been so minute in giving the outline of Stow's 
 life, because of its intrinsic interest, and of his 
 being the founder of the venerable Institution of 
 which I am Principal, and which, as I have stated, 
 lays claim to being the first formally-instituted 
 Training College in the United Kingdom. 
 
 Mr. Stow wrote many fugitive papers and 
 several books on education, the chief of which 
 is entitled the " Training System," which has 
 run through many editions, the one from which 
 I quote in these pages being the tenth, and 
 published in 1854. This work, which embraces 
 most of what Mr. Stow had previously written, 
 illustrates fully the system of teaching which 
 he spent a lifetime in bringing to perfection, 
 and is well worthy of careful study. 
 
 The chief features of the system, the principles 
 he insists on, may be comprehended under four 
 or five heads, the first of which is 
 
 Training, as opposed to teaching, telling, or 
 instructing. The distinction between teaching 
 and training is one which is by no means 
 generally understood ; but it is a distinction 
 which teachers should clearly and fully compre- 
 hend. Solomon said, ' Train up a child in the 
 
FORMATION OF HABITS. 
 
 199 
 
 way he should go, and when he is old he will 
 not depart from it,' a precept which is still to 
 be seen in conspicuous characters in the lobby 
 of the Normal School, and in the students' hall. 
 Two hundred years before Stow, John Locke had 
 recommended 'the method of teaching children 
 by repeated practice, and the same action done 
 over and over again, under the eye and direc- 
 tion of the tutor, till they have got the habit 
 of doing it well,' and Dr. Samuel Johnson had 
 very pithily said, ' You cannot by all the lecturing 
 in the world enable a man to make a shoe/ 
 The principle of training, therefore, was by no 
 means new ; but Stow applied it so skilfully, so 
 thoroughly, and so successfully in school work, 
 that, in his hands and in his writings, the prin- 
 ciple has the appearance of freshness and origi- 
 nality. His own remarks on the subject are very 
 interesting. 
 
 'A child may be clumsy in his manners, or 
 disorderly in his habits. For example, if instead 
 of hanging up his cap on the proper nail or 
 peg, he throws it on the floor lift it who may 
 then cause the boy to lift it himself, and to 
 place it calmly on the peg. See that he does 
 this properly and instantly on receiving the com- 
 mand, and repeat the practical lesson until he 
 acquires the habit of doing so of himself. 
 
200 DAVID STOW. 
 
 ' If a child comes to school with dirty hands, 
 should the master say to the child, " It is wrong 
 to come to school so ; you must wash them 
 properly before you come here," this would be 
 teaching. To make the inquiry audibly in the 
 hearing of all, " How ought children to come to 
 school ? ought their hands to be dirty or ... 
 clean" ? at the same time holding up the dirty 
 hand, and comparing it with the clean hand of 
 another child, also causing him to wash his 
 hand, is training. The instruction, or teaching, 
 may, or may not, be attended to ; but the 
 intellectual perception brought out by the con- 
 trast of the clean hand with the dirty one, along 
 with the actual washing of it, and the sympathy 
 of companionship, never fail, in any case, to 
 produce the habit of cleanliness. 
 
 ' A child may be told to make a bow on enter- 
 ing or leaving a room, and every plan of making 
 it gracefully may have been fully laid before him ; 
 but, without training, he will make a pitiful ex- 
 hibition on attempting his first obeisance. It is 
 equally the same in carving a fowl no teaching 
 or lecturing will suffice without training or 
 doing. 
 
 'A person destined for a public speaker may 
 have read much, and been taught much he 
 may know most critically all the rules of elocu- 
 
" SHUT THE DOOR:' 201 
 
 tion ; but he will make a poor figure, unless he 
 has applied himself practically to the art ; until, 
 in fact, he has been trained to public speaking. 
 
 1 It is recorded of Dean Swift that he had often 
 been teaching or telling his servant in vain to 
 close the library door when she left the room. 
 One day she entered her master's study, and 
 requested permission of him that she might go 
 a few miles into the country, to the marriage 
 of a friend, which was granted. The door, as 
 usual, was left open ; annoyed at this, the Dean 
 permitted the girl to leave the house several 
 minutes, and then ordered another servant to 
 follow, and to say to her that her master wished 
 to speak with her. She reluctantly obeyed the 
 summons, and returning in great haste inquired 
 what her master wished to say. The Dean 
 calmly replied, " Oh, nothing particular ; shut the 
 door." What teaching had failed to do, training 
 in this instance fully accomplished the door was 
 ever afterwards properly closed. 
 
 'In intellectual teaching, a child may commit 
 to memory the whole rules of English or Latin 
 grammar, and may be able to repeat every ex- 
 ample, and answer every query contained in the 
 book itself, thoroughly and correctly ; and thus 
 far he shows the extent of his instruction or 
 teaching. The child is only under training, how- 
 
202 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 ever, when he is put to the work of applying these 
 rules to the formation of a sentence in speaking 
 or writing ; and it is evident that the person well 
 taught in the rules may be exceedingly ill trained, 
 or not trained at all, to the practice of speaking 
 or writing grammatically. Ere the child, there- 
 fore, is a trained grammarian, his mind must be 
 made to bear upon the subject he must under- 
 stand it, and actually apply for himself the 
 rules of speaking and writing correctly. 
 
 'In the moral department, storing the mind 
 with Scripture texts is teaching or instruction- 
 seeing that the child practically does the things 
 as they are required in real life, renders the 
 process training.' (pp. 78-80). 
 
 The distinction between teaching and training 
 is still further brought out in Stow's observations 
 on Bible training, on which he places great im- 
 portance, the great object of his Hfe having been 
 the moral upbringing of the young ; and, in course 
 of time, the gradual amelioration of what he called 
 the sunken and the sinking classes of society, 
 which he estimated as constituting, at that period, 
 one half of the population of Glasgow, (p. 88.) 
 
 The following are his definitions of Bible read- 
 ing, Bible teaching, and Bible training : 
 
 i. ' Bible reading we understand to be the 
 simple reading of the words of Scripture, without 
 
BIBLE TEACHING. 
 
 203 
 
 explanation or analysis, and is what is prac- 
 tised at the present day in five cases out of six. 
 Thirty years ago it was all but universal. The 
 whole meaning of a passage or text of Scrip- 
 ture frequently rests on one or two words. If 
 these are not understood, the reader may with 
 equal profit read the whole passage in a foreign 
 tongue. 
 
 2. ' Bible teaching we understand to include 
 an explanation or telling by the master of the 
 meaning of what is read, instructing the child, 
 as it is termed, and conveying the explanation 
 in words more or less simple, which the pupil 
 may, or may not comprehend, and which point 
 the teacher does not use any systematic means 
 of ascertaining. This explanation or question- 
 ing may be confined, as is too much the practice, 
 to the mere facts, without the lesson itself, or 
 it may include both. When questioning is added 
 to telling or instruction, such an examination then 
 forms one step in the process of training, but still 
 rises no higher than examination. 
 
 3. * Bible training is not simple reading, al- 
 though the passage must be read or repeated. 
 Nor is it mere telling or explanation, although 
 the meaning must be told and explained, but 
 not entirely by the master ; nor is it mere ques- 
 tioning by the master, and answering by the 
 
204 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 scholars, viva voce, or what may be gathered 
 from a printed book ; and yet questions are put, 
 and answers are received, but they are mixed 
 with ellipses by a particular process, and in such 
 a way, as that instead of the master-trainer draw- 
 ing the lesson, the children are required and 
 enabled to do so to him in their own language, 
 more or less simple. The being able to do this 
 is the proof that the whole subject-matter has 
 been clearly pictured out, and rendered visible 
 to the mind's eye of the children. What the 
 children mentally see, they can therefore express 
 in their own language. We may here remark 
 that the theory and practice of Bible training pro- 
 ceed upon the principle, that nearly every passage 
 of Scripture, when naturally pictured out in words, 
 explains its own meaning.' (pp. 168, 169.) 
 
 The system first mentioned viz., Bible read- 
 ing is almost worthless in its moral results ; 
 and of this fact Mr. Stow gives a melancholy 
 though amusing instance, which fell under his 
 own observation. 
 
 ' A few years ago, I visited a school in one of 
 the large towns of England, taught on the moni- 
 torial system, and was introduced to the master 
 by one of the directors, who stated that he was 
 .a very superior teacher, and had his boys, to 
 the number of at least 350, in good order. I 
 
BIBLE EXAMINATION. 
 
 205 
 
 found the school, as stated, in excellent order, 
 all busy at spelling lessons or reading the Scrip- 
 tures. On reaching the highest class, in com- 
 pany with the master and director, I asked the 
 former if he ever questioned the scholars on what 
 they read. He answered, " No, sir, I have no 
 time for that ; but you may, if you please." I 
 answered that, except when personally known to 
 the teacher, I never questioned children in any 
 school. " By all means, do so now if you please ; 
 but them thick-headed boys cannot understand 
 a word, I am sure." Being again asked to put a 
 few questions, I proceeded: "Boys, show me 
 where you are reading," and to do them justice, 
 they read fluently. The subject was the story 
 of Eli and his two sons. I caused the whole of 
 them to read the first verse " And Eli had two 
 sons, Hophni and Phinehas." " Now, children, 
 close your books," (presuming it impossible that 
 any error could be committed in such a plain 
 narrative, I proceeded), "Well, who was Eli?" 
 No answer. This question appeared too high, 
 requiring an exercise of thought, and a knowledge 
 not to be found in the verse read. I therefore 
 descended in the scale and proceeded, " Tell me 
 how many sons Eli had ? " " Ugh ? " " Had Eli 
 any sons?" "Sir?" "Open your books, if 
 you please, and read again." Three or four 
 
206 DAVID srow. 
 
 read in succession, " And Eli had two sons, 
 Hophni and Phinehas." " Now, answer me, boys; 
 how many sons had Eli?" " Soor ?" "Who 
 do you think Eli was ? Had Eli any sons ? "- 
 " Ugh ?" " Was he a man, do you think, or a bird, 
 or a beast? Who do you think Eli was, chil- 
 dren ? " " Soor ? " " Look at me, children, 
 and answer me this If Eli had two sons, do 
 you think his two sons had a father ? " " Soor ? " 
 " Think, if you please, had Eli ANY sons ? " 
 No answer. " Well, since you cannot tell me 
 how many sons Eli had, how many daughters 
 had he, think you ? " " Three, sir." " Where 
 do you find that, children ? look at your Bibles. 
 Who told you that Eli had three daughters ? " 
 " Ugh ? " The director turned upon his heels, 
 and the master said, " Now, sir, didn't I tell you 
 them fello^cvs conld not understand a ivord?" 
 This I term Scriptural reading ; those who choose 
 may term it Scriptural education! (pp. 118, 119.) 
 
 On Bible training, Mr. Stow bestows the 
 following panegyric : * We are aware that no 
 treatise can exhibit the power and beauty of 
 Bible training ; for, in addition, it requires the 
 sympathy of master and scholars, the eye, the 
 action, and the tones of the voice. Indeed, to 
 know the system properly, we must be able to 
 practise it.' (p. 173.) And, again, he remarks 
 
BIBLE TRAINING LESSONS. 
 
 207 
 
 ' A Bible training lesson so thoroughly brings 
 out the true meaning of the passage, and so 
 enlarges the mind by analysing the natural 
 picture on which the moral or spiritual lessons 
 rest, that we promise the trainer or conductor, 
 high as his knowledge of Scripture truth may be, 
 as great an increase to his own mind, as he com- 
 municates to any or all of his pupils. Often- 
 times have I commenced a lesson with my 
 Sabbath pupils, thinking I knew the subject 
 pretty fully, but ere I was done, the observations 
 or answers of my scholars on the subject-matter 
 of the lesson, threw a flood of light on the whole 
 subject, removing perhaps a difficulty, or an 
 apparent contradiction, and rendering the lesson 
 to be drawn from the natural picture apparent 
 as noon-day a training lesson thus becoming 
 a practical commentary. We promise every 
 Bible trainer, therefore, a rich addition to his 
 previous stock of knowledge, and, what is of more 
 importance, an increased facility in acquiring it ; 
 his own mind, as well as his pupils', being 
 gradually sharpened and improved/ (p. 180.) 
 
 As an example of the method to be pursued, 
 he instances a passage of Scripture which 'is 
 generally considered above the comprehension of 
 children, but which may be rendered compara- 
 tively easy of solution/ viz. : - 
 
208 DAVID STOW. 
 
 'As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, 
 so panteth my soul after thee, O God.' (Psalm 
 xlii, i). 
 
 On the training system, the teacher should first 
 get the children to understand the natural picture 
 given by the Psalmist, by giving a short outline 
 of the habits of the hart, ' its panting what is 
 panting why it pants nature of the climate 
 dust heat being hunted it may be on the dry 
 mountains of Judea whether it must have 
 plunged into or drank from the water-brooks 
 formerly, before it could long or pant after them, 
 &c.' (p. 170). When the natural picture is thus 
 made clear to their minds, the children will 
 themselves be able to perceive the force of the 
 analogy, ' So panteth my soul after thee, O God/ 
 
 In respect to religious teaching in school, he 
 observes : ' The province of the schoolmaster, I 
 conceive to lie in training in the elements of 
 Divine truth, just as he trains, or ought to train, 
 in the elements of any and of every secular 
 branch of education which he is required or 
 entrusted to teach. This he can best and most 
 satisfactorily accomplish by analysing and 
 picturing out Scripture in its emblems, precepts, 
 history, &c., along with his pupils in a simple 
 and natural manner/ (p. 16.) 
 
 But while Mr. Stow placed so much impor- 
 
GALLERY LESSONS. 
 
 209 
 
 tance on Bible training, he was equally anxious 
 that the training system should be carried out 
 in teaching other branches ; and in these days 
 when there is a growing desire for science teach- 
 ing in elementary schools, some useful hints may 
 be gathered from Stow, who, as the following 
 passage will testify, entertained a sensible view 
 of what elementary science teaching in schools- 
 ought to be. Having stated that the teaching 
 of science by means of gallery lessons ought ta 
 form a distinct feature in schools, even for the 
 children of the poor, and that those lessons 
 should be given orally, and without a text book, 
 he says, 
 
 'The lessons during the first stage, or the 
 outlines, at whatever age the child commences 
 his course, ought to be exceedingly simple, and 
 should comprehend a number of the more 
 obvious things in nature and in art, which every 
 child ought to know in their great outlines, before 
 he is perplexed with minute points, or the use 
 of technical terms ; a knowledge of which he 
 gradually acquires, as he advances from stage 
 to stage. 
 
 'As a child, I wish to know what wheaten 
 bread and oaten bread are ; the distinction in 
 quality, and how they are made ; how butter 
 and cheese are made ; what salt is ; how wine 
 
210 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 is made, and of what composed ; what brown 
 and loaf sugars are ; the nature of tea and coffee, 
 with the places where they are produced, and 
 how they are brought to the condition in which 
 they are found when used at home at the fire- 
 side ; the distinction between wool, cotton, flax, 
 and silk, both how they are produced, and why 
 more or less warm. 
 
 ' The child ought to be made acquainted with 
 articles of furniture. These are continually pre- 
 sented to his notice, and they afford the means 
 of exercising his powers of observation and 
 training him to think. Their nature and re- 
 lative qualities ought to be made familiar to 
 him. 
 
 'The natural history of the more common 
 animals, domestic and foreign, is also an object 
 of interest and a means of enlargement to the 
 young mind, particularly when united with a 
 short history, not merely of the habits of the 
 animals themselves, but of the countries and 
 inhabitants in and among which Providence has 
 placed them, and the peculiar adaptation of 
 each to its own particular circumstances. As 
 a child, I wish to know why the swallow is not 
 .seen during winter ; why -the hen has open feet, 
 and the duck webbed ; with other more minute 
 points of the formation of animals ; why the 
 
TRAINING LESSONS. 2 1 1 
 
 butterfly is seen in the summer only ; from 
 what origin it has sprung. What are all these ? 
 the child naturally inquires, and whence do the 
 wings of the latter derive their pearly whiteness? 
 Of what use rats and mice are, seeing they are 
 so troublesome in our dwellings, and why and 
 when they may be killed without our being 
 chargeable with cruelty ; how the foot of the 
 reindeer is suited to the frozen regions of Lap- 
 land, that of the horse to our own, and the 
 camel's to the sandy deserts of Arabia. From 
 each and all of these training lessons, the chil- 
 dren may learn something of the power, and 
 wisdom, and goodness of God to all His crea- 
 tures ; and such lessons should uniformly be 
 drawn from the children by every trainer during 
 the daily oral training lessons. 
 
 'The child sees himself surrounded on every 
 side by men of trade and handicraft, and he 
 wishes and ought to know, not merely the 
 qualities of things, and the materials in use, but 
 how they are moulded, or joined, or mixed, or 
 decomposed, so as to render them serviceable. 
 He sees the smith form a nail or a horse-shoe ; 
 why does he heat the iron in a furnace, before 
 laying it on the anvil, and striking it with the 
 hammer ? The uses of the pulley, the screw, 
 and the lever, ought to be pictured out to him 
 
212 DAVID STOW. 
 
 by analogy and familiar illustrations. The 
 child sees paper ; why not woven as a piece 
 of cloth, and why more or less impervious to 
 moisture ? 
 
 ' The child breathes air, drinks water, sees 
 steam, hail, and snow. What are all these ? the 
 child naturally inquires, and why is the last 
 white, and when melted turns into water ? 
 What are thunder and lightning, and are they 
 of any use ? The sun to him appears always 
 round, not so the moon why so ? The princi- 
 pal parts of his own body, and those of other 
 animals, with their relative functions, ought to 
 be known ; the qualities and names of the more 
 common minerals, and the great outlines of 
 botany, &c. Such oral training lessons ought 
 to be commenced in their outlines in the 
 Initiatory School, and carried forward more 
 minutely in the juvenile and senior depart- 
 ments.' (pp. 185-187.) 
 
 To teachers located in the country, he offers 
 the following suggestions and practical hints : 
 
 ' Agricultural Schools. Although very few of 
 you have the opportunity of actually practising 
 farming, yet you ought to conduct training 
 lessons on its various principles of chemical 
 manure, crops, &c., and ploughing, digging, 
 harrowing, sowing, reaping, &c., &c., which can 
 
PARISH MUSEUMS. 
 
 213 
 
 of course be carried out more practically in 
 country schools. We would recommend the 
 practice of making occasional excursions into 
 the country with your pupils, to collect speci- 
 mens, thus uniting practice and theory. On the 
 same principle, in teaching geometry, the pupils' 
 attention ought frequently to be called to the 
 application which may be made of the abstract 
 truths demonstrated. Were the pupil, after de- 
 monstrating the propositions on which the mea- 
 surement and calculations rest, to be required 
 actually to measure a rectangular field, and cal- 
 culate its contents interest in the study would 
 be greatly increased ; he would see a meaning 
 and a use in every line he draws, and every 
 figure he sketches. 
 
 ' Were every parish or district school furnished 
 with specimens of its peculiar plants, flowers, 
 minerals, and living animals, which might be 
 collected by the children of the school, not only 
 would their minds be enlarged by daily train- 
 ing lessons, on each in succession, but the 
 metropolitan museum of such a country might, 
 by the peculiar specimens collected from each 
 parish, present a complete compendium of the 
 natural history of the whole kingdom.' (p. 341). 
 
 Stow's examples of how arithmetic and book- 
 keeping should be taught on the training system 
 
2I 4 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 are extremely interesting. I can afford space 
 for the latter only. 
 
 ' Book-keeping. Pupils should be trained by 
 actually keeping books in school. They might 
 be provided with miniature sets of books, viz., 
 journals, ledgers, cash - books, invoice - books y 
 purchasing- ledgers, bank-books, &c., and actually 
 required to do the thing, to insert the real or 
 supposed transactions, and balance their books 
 accordingly. Books of very small value would 
 be sufficient for the purpose. Whilst as good 
 figures would thus be taught as on the old plan, 
 book-keeping would be acquired an interest 
 would be felt by the boys, and a bustle ex- 
 hibited during the half hour of these real 
 transactions in school resembling the aspect of 
 a large mercantile establishment. At first, of 
 course, simple entries would only be made of 
 simple transactions in purchases, sales, receipts 
 of monies, and banking arrangements ; but, 
 progressively, every variety of mercantile books 
 would be brought into requisition, and double 
 entry, in its most perfect form, attained. 
 
 * Boys, so trained, not simply taught, might 
 then present their school productions as a claim 
 to clerkships, and they would not enter counting- 
 houses ignoramuses, as they now do. 
 
 ' It may be stated, as an objection to the 
 
WORD PAINTING. 
 
 215 
 
 necessity, or capability, of a teacher teaching 
 real book-keeping in school, that every mercantile 
 house has its own mode of keeping books. This 
 is true ; but the principle of keeping books is 
 the same whether only three or four books are 
 kept, or twenty, and whether they are kept by 
 single or by double entry/ (p. 294.) 
 
 II. I now proceed to the second feature of the 
 training system, viz., ' Picturing out/ which is 
 distinct from pictorial illustration, or illustrating 
 by pictures and diagrams. ' Picturing out ' is 
 effected by ' words ' only, and may be described 
 as oral illustration or 'word painting.' For 
 example, if it were desired to picture out the 
 meaning of the term 'evaporation/ instead of 
 telling the children that it is the act or state of 
 passing off in vapour, which might convey no 
 better meaning to them than the word * evapora- 
 tion ' by itself, it would be necessary to ask the 
 children whether they had ever gone out to 
 the fields or woods on a sunny day immediately 
 after a shower, and whether they had then 
 observed steam rising from the ground in many 
 places. Most of them would answer 'yes/ when 
 the teacher would remark, 'Well, then, what 
 you see rising up is also called " vapour," and 
 that which is taking place is called, "evapora- 
 tion." A few more remarks on the subject 
 
216 DAVID STOW. 
 
 would complete the picture. Again, if the 
 teacher wished to picture out the meaning of 
 ' effectual calling/ instead of explaining in the 
 ordinary way that it means 'calling with effi- 
 ciency or success/ he would say, ' Now, children, 
 if you chanced to be amusing yourselves in the 
 playground, and your father or mother were to 
 come to the gate, and, wishing to speak to you, 
 were to call aloud, and you heard the call, and 
 ran to meet them, that would be calling with 
 effect, or " effectual calling." The natural picture 
 being thus conveyed to the children's minds, 
 the spiritual picture is easily sketched e. g., the 
 teacher might add, 'We are all by nature at a 
 distance from God in consequence of sin, and 
 God, in His infinite love, is constantly calling 
 upon us through His Spirit to go to Him. When 
 we hear, and seek to do His will, our hearts 
 yearning after Him, we are effectually called, 
 and become His children by grace, as well as 
 by creation.' 
 
 Mr. Stow regarded this picturing out as one 
 of the chief agencies in the training system. ' It 
 is/ he says, 'a fundamental principle of the 
 system ; and whatever the school exercise may 
 be, secular or sacred, picturing out should uni- 
 formly be adopted, both in the broad outlines 
 and minuter points of every lesson.' (p. 190.) 
 
PICTURING OUT. 217 
 
 ' Pestalozzi was the first who introduced the 
 systematic use of objects and prints in public 
 education. The training system has added the 
 systematic picturing out in words of every ab- 
 stract term, figurative word, and figurative phrase, 
 by analogy, familiar illustrations, questions and 
 ellipses mixed, and simultaneous answers. It 
 must be borne in mind that every word, in any 
 language, either represents an object, or a com- 
 bination of objects, and therefore may be pic- 
 tured out and simplified in words representing 
 such.' (p. 191.) 
 
 ' In reading a book, or listening to a lecture 
 or sermon, should even one figurative word or 
 phrase be used which has not been pictured 
 out to the mind of the auditory, that word or 
 phrase may be a barrier to the understanding 
 of the whole subject;* hence the slow progress 
 of knowledge in the world, as we have already 
 stated, and the necessity of a previous school 
 training, and a picturing out by analogy and 
 familiar illustrations of all figurative words and 
 phrases used in elementary, scientific, and Scrip- 
 tural education. Picturing out to the mind is 
 still more necessary, when not merely one figura- 
 
 * True to a certain extent ; but it is equally true that 
 children pick up the meaning of a new or difficult word 
 from its connexion with other words, if these are clear 
 to them, in the context. See Abbott's " Teacher." 
 
2i8 DAVID STOW. 
 
 tive word is used, but when a number are pre- 
 sented in a single sentence. For example, Dr. 
 Buckland, in giving " proofs of design in the 
 effects of disturbing forces on the strata of the 
 earth," thus expresses himself : " Elevations and 
 subsidences, inclinations, and contortions, fractures 
 and dislocations are phenomena which, although 
 at first sight they present only the appearance 
 of disorder and confusion, yet, when fully under- 
 stood, demonstrate the existence of order, and 
 method, and design, even in the operations of 
 the most turbulent among the mighty physical 
 forces which have affected the terraqueous globe." 
 We know such sentences are read in schools, 
 without one word having been pictured out ; the 
 dictionary, with its verbal explanations, alone 
 being accessible to the pupil ; and grown-up 
 persons peruse the same words without attach- 
 ing any definite idea to them, and, finding no 
 definitions, or rather familiar illustrations, of 
 technical phrases in a dictionary, the sense of 
 the author is lost to them, from the fact of the 
 words they meet with not having been pictured 
 out in their early education.' (p. 193.) 
 
 Picturing is best carried out, in Mr. Stow's 
 opinion, by a skilful combination of question and 
 answer, along with ellipses ; questions alone 
 being dry and setting the mind of the pupils 
 
QUESTIONS AND ELLIPSES. 2 1 9 
 
 too much on the defensive. ' Questions set the 
 mind astir ellipses direct what has been set a 
 moving/ both being necessary to effect a simple, 
 vivid, and truthful picture. 
 
 ' Students, when they first enter the seminary, 
 uniformly confine themselves to putting ques- 
 tions the proper mode of putting ellipses com- 
 bined with questions is a high attainment in 
 practical training. The union affords the most 
 pleasing, the most natural, and the most efficient 
 of all methods of cultivating the understanding.' 
 
 (P- 233-) 
 
 In picturing out, it is equally desirable to use 
 familiar illustrations, 'such as are within the 
 range of the experience of the children, of what- 
 ever age or condition in life. The prince, the 
 peasant, and the factory child would generally 
 be familiar with very different things, or, at 
 least, would more readily apprehend the ana- 
 logy of different things and this must be left 
 to the judgment of the trainer. As a suitable 
 model, we have only to look into the narrative 
 of our Saviour's life, who spoke of corn-fields, 
 and figs, and vines, and hens, to farmers, hus- 
 bandmen, and vine-dressers. Had he lived in 
 this country, and in our day, He might have 
 illustrated His sayings by the water-conduit, the 
 blast-furnace, or the steam-engine.' (p. 246.) 
 
22O DAVID STOW. 
 
 Picturing is especially necessary in Bible- 
 training, as every page of Scripture is full of 
 figurative expressions. Our Saviour adopted 
 this method of illustration in His daily teaching. 
 ' When asked by the Pharisees, " Is it lawful to 
 give tribute to Caesar?" He said, "Show me a 
 penny," &c. He did not tell, but trained. 
 Again, when asked, "Who is my neighbour?" 
 He pictured it out by the story of the " Good 
 Samaritan." When John the Baptist sent his 
 disciples to Jesus, and inquired, " Art thou he 
 that should come, or do we look for another?" 
 He neither answered yes nor no, but said, " Go, 
 and shew John again those things which ye do 
 hear and see, the blind receive their sight, and 
 the lame walk," &c., leaving them to form the 
 conclusion from the simple picture he had 
 drawn.' (p. 56.) 
 
 Mr. Stow gives the following example of the 
 principle of picturing out, taken from a Bible 
 lesson given at the Normal School on one 
 occasion : 
 
 'A highly -educated M.P. was present, who 
 expressed himself satisfied that the training 
 system was well worthy of attention ; but that 
 he did not precisely understand the distinction 
 between teaching and training. The master- 
 trainer said, " Sir, you perceive that the child- 
 
TEACHING AND TRAINING. 221 
 
 ren are now reading part of the history of the 
 oppression of the children of Israel in Egypt, 
 and the next part of the chapter they are about 
 to read is regarding their using straw in the 
 making of bricks, &c. Now, sir, I believe they 
 do not know why straw was used, nor do they 
 know whether the bricks in Egypt were dried 
 in the sun, or burned as in this country." The 
 trainer put a few questions to the children, 
 which proved that they did not know, as he 
 supposed. The master also said, " Were I to 
 tell them, seeing they do not know, that would 
 be teaching; but I shall not tell them, and I 
 shall cause them to tell me the nature of the 
 clay in Egypt, compared with that in England, 
 and whether the bricks were burned or dried 
 there, and that will be training!' 
 
 'The trainer repeated the fact that straw was 
 used in the making of bricks in Egypt, as the 
 children read from the Bible ; but of course 
 they were ignorant of the reason why straw 
 was used in their manufacture. He then brotight 
 out from them, by analogy, the difficulty of break- 
 ing a bunch of straw, however thin what the 
 effect would be of layers of straw being mixed 
 with clay, while yet in a soft state, and after- 
 wards dried that the straw would strengthen 
 it, and render it more tenacious, or, at least 
 
222 DAVID STOW. 
 
 less liable to break. He then brought out 
 from the children that the bricks were not 
 burned in Egypt, seeing, as they told him, that 
 if so,, the straw used would have been of no 
 service, as in the process of burning the bricks, 
 the straw must be reduced to ashes ; that straw 
 in this country would be of no use in the 
 making of bricks, seeing that we burned them, 
 and that we could not get them sufficiently 
 dried in ordinary seasons by the sun, even in 
 summer. 
 
 ' From the nature of the climate of Egypt, 
 with which they were acquainted, it having 
 been brought out in some of their ordinary 
 geography lessons, they inferred that the bricks 
 might be dried in the sun that the clay could 
 not be so firm, or solid, or tenacious as ours, 
 when they required straw to strengthen it. 
 They therefore thought that the clay in Egypt 
 must be more sandy than ours, seeing that our 
 brick -makers do not require to use straw to 
 strengthen the bricks. Thus the mode of drying 
 bricks in Egypt, and the nature of their clay 
 compared with ours, was determined by analogy 
 and familiar illustrations without telling" (p. 247.) 
 
 In pursuing this course of illustration, it is 
 not necessary to explain every point in the 
 lesson. 
 
PICTURING INEXHAUSTIBLE. 
 
 223 
 
 'Be content,' he says, 'with illustrating one 
 distinct point during each lesson. Make use of 
 all the knowledge the children may have pre- 
 viously acquired ; do not take the honey, as it 
 were, out of other flowers not analogous, and 
 put it into the one presented, as if you had 
 made a discovery of what really is not in the 
 text ; but take the sweets out of the one daily 
 presented, in all their variety. Consider the 
 effect of 300 points per annum clearly pictured 
 out, and that number added for three, five, or 
 seven years in succession, how luminous would 
 the pages of Scripture appear during private 
 reading, or while listening to a Gospel ministry ! ' 
 
 (P- 373-) 
 
 One great advantage of the system of 'pic- 
 turing out' is that it is inexhaustible. To ob- 
 jects, pictures, prints, and diagrams, there is 
 obviously a limit ; but to picturing out there is 
 none, and it is also equally applicable to any sub- 
 ject. Thus Latin grammar might be rendered 
 a less dry and more interesting study were the 
 learner not permitted to use any term which 
 had not been first pictured out to his mind ; 
 for example, such words as participle, perfect, 
 indicative, pluperfect, subjunctive, &c. ; why a 
 noun is declined, and a verb conjugated, and 
 the same in English grammar, objective, pos- 
 
224 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 sessive, &c. This, I confess, would present con- 
 siderable difficulty to a young teacher. 
 
 I shall conclude this subject by giving an in- 
 stance, recorded by Stow, of the absurdity of 
 using abstract terms in addressing children. 
 1 After the public examination of a charity school 
 in a certain manufacturing town in Scotland, a 
 learned gentleman present was invited to put a 
 few questions to the children. The gentleman 
 proceeded : " Children, look at me and answer a 
 few questions be very attentive answer me this 
 hem ! Is it not a fact that imitation is stamped 
 on all sublunary objects ? " The children of course 
 remained silent. Mutation, to them, was a mere 
 sound without meaning ; stamped (it being a town 
 where muslins are manufactured) only suggested 
 to them the idea of stamping gauze, or jaconet 
 for tambouring ; sublunary had never come under 
 the category of their reading, and the term had 
 not been analysed or explained to them the 
 word was therefore quite incomprehensible ; and 
 as to objects, in connection with the other un- 
 pictured-out words, they naturally thought of 
 lame beggars who were carried from door to 
 door on a " handbarrow," it being common to term 
 all disabled persons objects "such and such a 
 one," they were accustomed to say, " is quite an 
 object." ' (p. 194.) And again, 
 
" SYMPATHY OF NUMBERS." 22$ 
 
 ' A reverend gentleman, examining the children 
 of a Sabbath School, put the following question : 
 " Children, in the work of regeneration, can you 
 tell me whether the Spirit operates causally or 
 instrumentally ? " If these children could have 
 answered this question, they might certainly 
 have been transplanted, we think, to the divinity 
 hall of a university.' (p. 195.) 
 
 III. The third characteristic of the training 
 system is the ' sympathy of numbers,' which Mr. 
 Stow calls the ' oil-spring ' of the whole system. 
 Every teacher of experience is aware that it is 
 easier to teach a number of children all about 
 the same stage of progress than to teach a few. 
 In the one case, the potent stimulant of emula- 
 tion, and of what the French call esprit de corps 
 can be skilfully and successfully applied ; in 
 the other case, there is likely to be listlessness 
 on the part of the pupils, and indifference on 
 the part of the teacher. By all means, then, the 
 active teacher should have a good handful of 
 children ; and fortunately, in elementary schools, 
 there is little or no probability of any other 
 state of matters. This being the case, I shall 
 touch very briefly on this topic, giving my reader 
 an opportunity of hearing Mr. Stow say a few 
 words on the subject : ' In conducting an intel- 
 lectual lesson with half a dozen children in a 
 
226 DAVID STOW. 
 
 class of different ages like a family, the question- 
 ing must all be individual ; whereas with a 
 gallery of seventy or eighty of nearly the same 
 age (and the nearer the better), the questioning, 
 and development, and training may be con- 
 ducted chiefly simultaneously ; and thus what- 
 ever answers are brought out by the trainer, 
 from, one or more of the children, can be made 
 the possession of all, so that every one may 
 learn what any one knows thus diffusing 
 knowledge more widely, and causing the variety 
 of natural talents and dispositions to operate 
 favourably on all. A similar effect takes place 
 in the moral development of dispositions and 
 habits in the playground, some particular in- 
 stances of which should be noticed by the 
 trainer, on the return of the children to the 
 school-gallery, and when, again, the sympathy 
 of numbers operates favourably in applauding 
 the good deed, or condemning the misdemean- 
 .our. There is a power, therefore, in numbers, 
 not experienced in individual teaching or train- 
 ing ; and the playground and the gallery 
 conjoined, under proper management and super- 
 intendence, afford the most perfect sympathy. 
 
 ' Whilst the pupils sympathize with each other, 
 it is important that they sympathize also with 
 their master. For this purpose, it is necessary 
 
THE SIZE OF A CLASS. 
 
 227 
 
 that he place himself on such terms with his 
 pupils as that they can, without fear, make him 
 their confidant, unburden their minds, and tell 
 him of any little mischief they may have done. 
 Teachers and parents, desirous of gaining the 
 confidence of their children, must in fact them- 
 selves, as it were, become children, by bending 
 to, and occasionally engaging in, their plays 
 and amusements. Without such condescension, 
 a perfect knowledge of real character and dis- 
 positions cannot be obtained/ (p. 156.) 
 
 The only exception that can be taken to these 
 observations is with respect to the number of 
 children that can be managed in the gallery, 
 and, indeed, the strongest objection I have heard 
 brought against Stow's system is its too simul- 
 taneous character. In order to have them well 
 in hand, the number, I think, should never 
 exceed forty ; * otherwise the teacher can 
 never attain the requisite individual knowledge 
 of the pupils and their acquirements, which his 
 duty to them and to their parents, and the 
 necessities of the standard examinations, require. 
 On visiting the excellent schools recently opened 
 by the Merchant Company in Edinburgh, with 
 one of which viz., the girl's school in Queen 
 
 * The practice in Norway, I believe, is to allow only 
 twenty-five pupils to each teacher. 
 
228 DAVID STOW. 
 
 Street I was much pleased ; and in which 1,200 
 girls receive an excellent secondary and primary 
 education combined, I was glad to find that 
 forty is the maximum number in all the 
 classes. 
 
 IV. The fourth feature of the book is its advo- 
 cacy of the mixed system in schools, i. e., that boys 
 and girls should be taught together. At first 
 sight, this system appears perhaps to many to 
 be attended with considerable disadvantages, the 
 girls being exposed by it to the natural rude- 
 ness of the boys. But after careful consideration 
 and lengthened experience, I am decidedly of 
 opinion that the mixed system is the best. In 
 the practising schools of the Glasgow Church of 
 Scotland Normal School, there are, on an aver- 
 age year by year, over 1,200 children in atten- 
 dance, the sexes balancing each other pretty 
 equally, and during my connexion with these 
 schools for the past eighteen years, I have never 
 heard nor known of any evil existing or being 
 complained of in connexion with the system. 
 Other training colleges afford equally good ex- 
 amples ; the advantages of the system being 
 quite apparent in all. Each sex seems to take 
 from the other what it stands most in need of, 
 the girls softening and refining the boys, while 
 the latter sharpen and strengthen the minds and 
 
THE MIXED SYSTEM. 
 
 229 
 
 the characters of the girls ; or, in the words of 
 Mr. Stow, the 'girls morally elevate the boys, 
 and the boys intellectually elevate the girls/ 
 
 My own experience is that boys become less 
 rude in language and in manner, and more 
 careful in dress and personal habits, while the 
 minds of the girls derive equal advantages from 
 competition with the boys. Girls, for instance, 
 do not naturally take to arithmetic as a branch 
 of study ; but, in consequence of the stimulating 
 presence of boys in the same class, they come 
 to equal them, and often to excel them in cal- 
 culation. Girls, too, are naturally inclined to 
 read in too low and feeble tones, were it not 
 that the louder and bolder style of the boys 
 effects a cure. In teaching vocal music, again, 
 the two sexes are almost indispensable. In this 
 system, of course, there is a happy medium, as 
 in everything else. While the schools, above 
 referred to, are mixed, each sex has a play- 
 ground for itself; the girls and boys of the 
 same class sit on separate benches, and do not 
 interchange places in the work of the class ; and 
 a mistress is associated with the master in each 
 department. At the present time, when the at- 
 tention of the country is being turned, through 
 the operation of the Education Acts of 1870 
 and 1872, to the best methods of school organ- 
 
230 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 ization, it is most important that school boards 
 should study the question fairly, and consider 
 whether in places where existing accommodation 
 is deficient, they should erect large boys' schools, 
 or girls' schools, or adopt the principle so 
 strongly recommended by Mr. Stow. The 
 general practice in Scotch elementary schools, 
 from the days of Knox till now, has been that 
 boys and girls should be taught together; and 
 on the authority of Mr. Stow, ' the Scots are the 
 most moral people on the face of the earth.' 
 The model of the family circle, where brothers 
 and sisters are brought up together; that of the 
 social circle, where men and women mix freely in 
 friendly intercourse, should be the basis on which 
 the consideration of the system is made to rest. 
 It is generally admitted that boys who have no 
 sisters are less cultivated and refined than those 
 who have ; and why should an atmosphere, that 
 has been proved to be so healthy at home, be 
 considered hurtful at school ? If boys and girls, 
 young men and young women, may dance, and 
 sing, and play, and amuse themselves together 
 with advantage, is there any special danger to 
 be apprehended if they should also study to- 
 gether ? The system has been tested in America, 
 and found to succeed admirably. 
 
 4 At Oberlin College, in the State of Ohio, 
 
JOINT ED UCA TION. 2 3 1 
 
 where the pupils number a thousand, half of 
 them women, the ages vary from seventeen to 
 seven and twenty ; and there the system has 
 been in successful operation for more than five 
 and thirty years. The testimony of the pro- 
 fessors is unanimous, to the effect that the 
 general tone of the students, not only as to 
 conduct, but also as to industry, is far superior 
 to what is usual in colleges managed on the 
 separate principle. Cases of ungentlemanly 
 behaviour are almost unknown.' * Equally 
 happy results might be quoted in the case of 
 other colleges ; indeed, in the Western States 
 the separate system has almost ceased to exist. 
 4 The reason which led the United States into 
 the adoption of this system was the difficulty of 
 providing in any other way for the proper edu- 
 cation of women. To create for them duplicate 
 schools and colleges throughout the land with 
 preceptors co-equal in knowledge and com- 
 petency would have been financially impossible ; 
 places for joint education were therefore estab- 
 lished, while numbers of those, originally intended 
 for the male sex only, have one after another 
 abandoned their exclusive traditions.' * If a 
 corresponding abandonment were to take place 
 in England, say in the large schools of Eton, 
 * Mixed Education, in "Contemporary Review," July, 1873. 
 
232 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 Harrow, and Rugby, and the mixed system to 
 be generally adopted, the evils deprecated by 
 Locke and Cowper, and acknowledged by Dr. 
 Arnold, might be in a great measure mitigated, 
 or come to cease altogether. There is no doubt 
 that the influence of one sex over another must 
 take a higher rank in education than it has 
 done, as a powerful means for moulding the 
 human mind and character. 
 
 V. The fifth feature is the conjoint use made 
 of the gallery and the playground for moral 
 training. Mr. Stow was of opinion that the 
 children should not go home at mid-day, but 
 that having brought lunch with them, they 
 should spend the interval in the playground, 
 where various employments and amusing games 
 should be provided for them. The teacher at 
 the same time should be present in their midst, 
 directing their amusements, and observing their 
 actions, and in consequence gaining gradually 
 a knowledge of the dispositions of his various 
 pupils. The playground afforded, in Mr. Stow's 
 opinion, an ample field for the latter object, 
 being in fact, a world in miniature, where each 
 little man acts his part and shews himself in 
 his natural character. Notes having been thus 
 taken by the teacher from day to day, the 
 following is an example of the use to be made 
 
THE PLAYGROUND. 233 
 
 of them in the gallery : ' We shall suppose that 
 in the playground one boy steals his play- 
 fellow's toy, it may be a ball or a spinning 
 top the teacher sees this, or is told of it ; he 
 takes no notice of the circumstance at the 
 moment, but on entering the school, as usual, 
 he commences the process of examination by 
 telling a story about a boy, who stole his neigh- 
 bour's top, or something else ; in a moment the 
 culprit's head hangs down ; it is unnecessary to 
 mark him out, lie is visible to all ; ninety-nine 
 out of the hundred (if we except the injured 
 party) sit in cool judgment upon the case, and, 
 at the master's desire, are requested to award 
 the punishment .due to such an offence. In the 
 meantime, he forgets not to remind the child 
 and all present, that, though he had not observed 
 him, God assuredly had ; or rather the teacher 
 draws out this statement from the children 
 themselves the panel at the bar remaining per- 
 fectly quiescent. The question may be put. 
 What punishment ? Some of the more furious 
 boys, whose energies require perhaps only to be 
 regulated in order to make them noble characters, 
 call out, Beat him, cuff him, all the rest in the 
 meantime keeping silence, conceiving such punish- 
 ment to be rather severe. The master, however, 
 will ask another question or two, rather than fulfil 
 
234 DAVID STOW. 
 
 the commands of this unmerciful jury. " Is this 
 boy in the habit of stealing your playthings ?" 
 No, sir. " None of you have seen him do such 
 a thing till . . . now. Then you think this 
 is a ... first offence ? Ought a child to be 
 punished as severely for a first, as a second 
 or third offence ? " No, sir. " What then shall 
 we do to this boy ? " Instantly the girls will 
 naturally cry out, " Forgive him, forgive him." 
 Now, mark the natural effect upon all parties, 
 the guilty is condemned by his fellows, the 
 milder feelings are brought into play, and all 
 have been exercised in the principles of truth 
 and justice. Without wasting words, by carrying 
 out the probable conversation, or stating the 
 various ramifications, which this circumstance 
 and similar of daily occurrence among children, 
 may present, for not only may the playthings 
 have been stolen, but a lie told to hide the act, 
 and even blows given in the way of defence, all 
 of which require distinct modes of treatment, 
 and, if not early checked, will harden the con- 
 science, and strengthen the evil propensities of 
 our common nature, whatever effect the examina- 
 tion may have on the guilty individual, we are 
 quite sure it will be most salutary upon all the 
 others.' (p. 205.) Mr. S tow's opinion, on the 
 efficiency of this superintendence at play, is very 
 
PLAYGROUND SUPERINTENDENCE. 
 
 235 
 
 strongly expressed. ' It is as impracticable for 
 a teacher to train morally and intellectually with- 
 out a gallery, and a playground, as it would be 
 for a mechanic to work without his tools ' (p. 204). 
 And again, ' The training system is not practised 
 where moral superintendence of the children, by 
 the masters, while at play, and a subsequent 
 review of their conduct on their return to the 
 school -gallery, forms no part of the plan pur- 
 sued/ (p. 27.) 
 
 This playground superintendence, if it could 
 be faithfully carried out, would no doubt form a 
 valuable means, not only of moral training, but 
 of protecting and encouraging the weaker chil- 
 dren ; but, considering the claims made upon 
 the elementary teacher, I do not think that, 
 with a due regard to health, he can attempt to 
 accomplish it. If a teacher is in attendance 
 from 8 A.M. till 12, and from i till 4, for the 
 instruction of pupil teachers and children, and, 
 in addition, corrects exercises and prepares les 
 sons at home, it would be hard to condemn 
 him, in a dinnerless condition, to walk sentry 
 in the playground, even for the excellent pur- 
 pose intended by the training system. An ar- 
 rangement, however, might be come to whereby 
 a second master, or sometimes a senior pupil- 
 teacher might (by having a separate dinner 
 
236 
 
 DAVID STOW. 
 
 hour assigned to him) overtake the work. In 
 order to relieve the masters of the practising 
 schools, I tried for two or three years the prac- 
 tice of sending the students into the play- 
 grounds for that purpose, a week at a time ; 
 but the plan did not answer my expectations, 
 the young men not feeling interested in the 
 work, and, besides, the person who takes the 
 notes of character should invariably give the 
 moral training lesson in the gallery. 
 
 I have now gone over the main features of 
 Stow's book ; taken a run through the chief 
 rooms of the house, as it were. There are 
 odd corners in it, however, well worthy of 
 inspection. For example, Mr. Stow advocates 
 strongly the importance of physical exercises 
 in and out of school, with a view to promote 
 health, to perform correct habits of body, and 
 to relieve the tedium of lessons. 'After some 
 practice,' he says, ' a gallery of children should 
 be able to rise up and sit down simultaneously, 
 as perfectly as a regiment of soldiers would 
 fire a volley, and so free from bustle in fact, 
 that a mouse, in the act of stealing cheese, 
 would not be disturbed/ The taking of places, 
 and the giving of prizes, Mr. Stow views with 
 disfavour, and he expresses himself very strongly 
 against corporal punishment and expulsion. ' If 
 
MONITORS. 
 
 237 
 
 the teacher does his duty, and uses the moral 
 means within his reach, the use of the rod is 
 quite unnecessary.' He is in favour of the 
 phonic system of teaching to read, and is opposed 
 to the employment of monitors, inquiring whether 
 a young and inexperienced lad should take the 
 place of a mature and cultivated teacher. He 
 has no objection to their being made use of in 
 such minor duties as revising the lessons in 
 arithmetic or spelling, putting aside the pens, 
 and other little matters that may serve to ease 
 the labour of the master ; but it cannot be ex- 
 pected that they should morally or intellec- 
 tually train, analyse, or picture out any point 
 or difficulty, as the master himself can do. His 
 observations on the qualities of a good trainer 
 are excellent ' the voice and the eye constitut- 
 ing/ in his opinion, ' fully one-half of his 
 power. A trainer's manner may be said to be 
 half his fortune.' 
 
 Stow's system was received with much favour, 
 and its educative value has been recognised by 
 persons of the highest position. On the au- 
 thority of his biographer, I may state that the 
 Marquis of Lansdowne, when Lord President 
 of the Privy Council, frankly said, 'that all the 
 improvements in education that have of late 
 years appeared in England worth mentioning, 
 
238 DAVID STOW. 
 
 can be easily traced to the Glasgow Normal 
 School.' * The book is specially valuable and 
 suggestive to Sabbath-school teachers, ministers, 
 and home - teachers, whom the severe require- 
 ments of the Revised Code have not driven 
 out of the pleasant God-frequented paths of 
 moral training. 
 
 * " Memoir," p. 220. 
 
 I 
 
HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 Spencer would have the Scholastic World revise its Task Ilis 
 estimate of the trite ' Measure of Value ' in Knowledge. 
 Classification of the leading ' Activities ' of Life Science 
 best fits a man for these Spheres of Activity Science versus 
 Language On Intellectual Education Old Methods of 
 Teaching The New should conform to Nature Self-devel- 
 opment should be encouraged Education begins in. the 
 Cradle Object Lessons The Acquirement of Knowledge 
 should be made Pleasurable Moral Discipline Natural 
 Consequences Practical Maxims and Rules for Moral 
 Education. 
 
 IN Herbert Spencer we have an educationist 
 still living, whose views are not the result of 
 practice in the work of teaching. Such a man's 
 thoughts and suggestions" are, however, emi- 
 nently noteworthy and serviceable. Standing 
 apart from the school, he is unbiassed by the 
 littlenesses which insensibly influence the teach- 
 er's character ; and, viewing the domain of prac- 
 tical teaching from a distance, he is in a better 
 positic for taking a comprehensive and per- 
 spectiv view of the teacher's sphere of action. 
 
240 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 The education which Spencer discusses has a 
 scope far above and beyond the elementary 
 teacher's province ; but notwithstanding this, 
 the latter will derive much benefit from hear- 
 ing what he has to say. 
 
 In perusing his Essays one is reminded of 
 Pestalozzi, and in several respects the two men 
 agree. If it can be said of Pestalozzi that he 
 compelled the scholastic world to revise their 
 task, it may be said with equal truth of Spen- 
 cer, that he would compel the same course at 
 the present time. Looking round on the do- 
 main of teaching calmly and sarcastically, he 
 says, quietly, ' Ladies and gentlemen, the sys- 
 tem you pursue is more suited for monks than 
 for intelligent citizens of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. And not only is your system bad, but 
 what you do teach is taught in a wrong order. 
 Highly abstract studies, such as grammar, which 
 should come late, are begun early. Political 
 geography, dead and uninteresting to a child, 
 and which should be an appendage of socio- 
 logical studies, is commenced betimes, while 
 physical geography, comprehensible and com- 
 paratively attractive to a child, is in great 
 part passed over ; you take up a child's time 
 in teaching him dead languages, which he shall 
 never turn to practical use, instead of teaching 
 
LEARNING BY ROTE. 
 
 241 
 
 him the living facts of the world around him, 
 and which have a bearing for good or for evil 
 on his whole life. And then, pervading the 
 whole, is the vicious system of learning by rote, 
 by which you sacrifice the spirit to the letter ; 
 in fact, ladies and gentlemen, had there been 
 no teaching but such as goes on in our public 
 schools, England would now be what it was in 
 feudal times. The vital knowledge, that by 
 which we have grown as a nation to what we 
 are, and which now underlies our whole exist- 
 ence, is a knowledge that has got itself taught 
 in nooks and corners, while the ordained agen- 
 cies for teaching have been mumbling little else 
 but dead formulas.' * 
 
 Such a charge applies chiefly, of course, to 
 our large public schools and universities ; yet it 
 startles the thoughtful teacher, and if he hum- 
 bly sits down at the feet of this new apostle, 
 crying, so to speak, in the wilderness, he will 
 rise in some degree a sworn disciple, for the 
 gospel he preaches is in the main true and 
 convincing, as it cannot but be, since, like the 
 teaching of Pestalozzi, it conducts one to the 
 feet of Nature herself. The first question which 
 you naturally put, is 'Pray, shew how my 
 teaching is false ; ' and in reply the master 
 
 * " Education," pp. 25-30. 
 Q 
 
242 BERBER T SPENCER. 
 
 leads you into a most interesting investiga- 
 tion into the relative value of knowledges, 
 which forms the subject of the first Essay in 
 his book. The mode in which this investiga- 
 tion is conducted is quite after the manner of 
 Socrates. Your inquiries are not answered at 
 once ; but he puts, as it were, two or three 
 questions to you, and leads you by the conces- 
 sions you make to answer the inquiries for your- 
 self. 'In order to ascertain what we should 
 teach/ he says, 'we must first of all determine 
 what we want to be at in teaching what our 
 object is in teaching at all ? Before there can 
 be a rational curriculum, we must settle which 
 things it concerns us most to know/ (p. 7.) 
 The joint conclusion come to is, that the 
 true 'measure of value' is the bearing which 
 each branch of knowledge has upon some part 
 of life life in the highest and broadest sense ; 
 and the problem of life, as far as this world is 
 concerned, resolves itself into the following pro- 
 positions : How to treat the body ; how to 
 treat the mind ; how to manage our affairs ; 
 how to bring up a family ; in what way to be- 
 have as a citizen ; in what way to utilize those 
 sources of happiness which nature supplies ; how 
 to use all our faculties to the greatest advan- 
 tage of ourselves and others ; how to live com- 
 
IS OUR PRESENT SYSTEM RIGHT! 
 
 243 
 
 pletely. ' To prepare us for. complete living, 
 then, is the function which education has to 
 discharge ; and the only rational mode of judg- 
 ing of an educational course is to judge in what 
 degree it discharges such function,' (p. 8) about 
 as good a definition of education as can well 
 be made. 
 
 ^ Tested by this measure of value, the know- 
 ledge which has, as a rule, been laid down in 
 every educational system, has been worthless; 
 the knowledge which conduces to personal 
 well-being having been postponed to that 
 which brings applause. ' In the Greek schools, 
 music, poetry, rhetoric, and a philosophy which, 
 until Socrates taught, had but little bearing 
 upon action, were the dominant subjects, while 
 knowledge, aiding the arts of life, had a very 
 subordinate place. And in our own universi- 
 ties and schools at the present moment, the 
 like antithesis holds. What use does a boy /, 
 make of his Latin and Greek in the shop or 
 the office, in managing his estate or his family, 
 in playing his part as a director of a bank or 
 a railway ? And in a girl's education, danc- 
 ing, deportment, the piano, singing, drawing 
 what a large space do these occupy ? And if 
 you ask why Italian and German are learnt, 
 you will find that under all the sham reasons 
 
244 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 given, the real reason is that a knowledge of 
 those tongues is thought lady-like. It is not 
 that the books written in them may be util- 
 ized, which they scarcely ever are ; but that 
 Italian and German songs may be sung, and 
 that the extent of attainment may bring whis- 
 pered admiration. The births, deaths, and mar- 
 riages of kings, and other like historical trivi- 
 alities, are committed to memory, not because 
 of any direct benefits that can possibly result 
 from knowing them ; but because society con- 
 siders them parts of a good education because 
 the absence of such knowledge may bring the 
 contempt of others.' (pp. 2, 3.) 
 
 With a view to determine more exactly the 
 kinds of knowledge that should be imparted, and 
 their proper order, he classifies the leading kinds 
 of activity, which constitute human life, into 
 
 I. Those activities which directly minister to 
 self-preservation. 
 
 II. Those activities which, by securing the 
 necessaries of life, indirectly minister to self- 
 preservation. 
 
 III. Those activities which have for their end 
 the rearing and discipline of offspring. 
 
 IV. Those activities which are involved in the 
 maintenance of proper social and political re- 
 lations, and 
 
FIVE LEADING HEADS. 345 
 
 V. Those miscellaneous activities which fill 
 up the leisure part of life, devoted to the gratifi- 
 cation of the tastes and feelings, (p. 9.) 
 
 A few minutes' reflection will shew that these 
 stand in something like their proper order, and 
 the elementary teacher will find it interesting to 
 consider how far his school-work bears on any or 
 all of them. In Spencer's opinion that only can 
 be called true education which prepares for these 
 several duties, and which maintains a due pro- 
 portion between the degrees of preparation in 
 each. In respect to the first, Spencer remarks 
 that, as it is too momentous to be left to our 
 blundering, nature takes it into her own hands, 
 a fact which may be traced in every instinct of 
 the child prompting it to shrink from new or 
 unusual sights or sounds ; it is nature that trains 
 the infant to balance its body, to control its 
 movements so as to avoid collisions, teaches it 
 what objects are hard, and will hurt if struck, 
 and what things will give pain if touched, and 
 adds to its store of knowledge from hour to 
 hour ; and, at a later stage, it is nature that 
 trains and develops its muscles, and sharpens its 
 perceptions by running, leaping, and jumping, 
 and prepares it to meet those greater dangers 
 that occasionally occur in the lives of all. All 
 this, too, nature does in the most rigid dis- 
 
246 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 ciplinafy way, effect succeeding cause with un- 
 erring and educative yet kindly precision. All 
 that is wanted in this fundamental education, 
 therefore, is that there be no thwarting of nature. 
 Stupid schoolmistresses must not be allowed to 
 debar the girls in their charge from the spon- 
 taneous physical activities they would indulge in; 
 and thus render them comparatively incapable of 
 taking care of themselves in circumstances of 
 peril, (p. 14.) In due time, however, Nature's 
 laws of health and disease must be studied, for 
 diseases are often contracted, our members are 
 often injured by causes which superior knowledge 
 would avoid. So profound is the ignorance of 
 the laws of life that men do not even know 
 that their sensations (when not rendered morbid 
 by long-continued disobedience) are their natural 
 and trustworthy guides. If fatigue of body or 
 brain were in every case followed by desistance, 
 if the oppression produced by a close atmosphere 
 always led to ventilation, if there were no eating 
 without hunger, or drinking without thirst, if, in 
 fact, the principles of physiology were better 
 understood and attended to, there would be 
 fewer cases of disease and premature death. 
 There is scarcely any one who, in the course of 
 his life, has not brought upon himself illnesses 
 which a little information would have saved 
 
PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 247 
 
 him from. Here is a case of rheumatic fever 
 that followed reckless exposure, there is a case 
 of eyes spoiled for life by over-study. Hence, 
 in Spencer's opinion, such a course of physi- 
 ology as is needful for comprehending its 
 general truths and their bearings on daily 
 conduct is an all-essential part of a rational 
 education. 
 
 Here I think the schoolmaster might lend a 
 helping hand ; few schools at present are without 
 lessons in science of some kind, and I agree with 
 Spencer in thinking that physiology is a science 
 of primary importance. It is not necessary to go 
 into the subject very deeply ; the broad facts of 
 the science and the rules of health being all that 
 it is necessary to impart. The objection that 
 is sometimes brought against it on the ground 
 of its unsuitability for mixed classes can be easily 
 obviated by giving separate lessons to boys and 
 girls. Spencer expresses unmingled surprise that 
 while parents are anxious that their sons should 
 be well up in the superstitions of two thousand 
 years ago, they care not that they should be 
 taught anything about the structure and functions 
 of their own bodies ; and that men, who would 
 blush if caught saying Iphigenia instead of 
 Iphigenia, or would resent as an insult any impu- 
 tation of ignorance respecting the fabled labours 
 
248 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 of Hercules, shew not the slightest shame in con- 
 fessing that they do not know where the Eusta- 
 chian tubes are, what are the actions of the spinal 
 cord, what is the normal rate of pulsation, or how 
 the lungs are inflated, so terribly in our educa- 
 tion does the ornamental override the useful, (p. 
 17.) ' This/ says the author of " Educational Re- 
 formers,". ' is begging the question/ and certainly 
 it is to some extent ; the mere facts gathered in 
 the way of any course of study being in a measure 
 secondary to the power of application gained in 
 the acquisition. Spencer's opinions, it will be ob- 
 served, are similar to Locke's, the latter advising 
 us first to put the body right that it may be 
 able to obey the behests of the mind ; the 
 former going the length of saying that the 
 first requisite to success in life is to be a good 
 animal. ' The best brain is of little service if 
 there be not enough vital energy to work it.' 
 (p. 60.) 
 
 In connection with his observations on the 
 activities which minister to self-preservation, 
 Spencer's Essay on Physical Education should be 
 read. It bears chiefly on the duties, of parents, 
 but is none the less useful to teachers. The 
 physical education of children he takes to be 
 seriously faulty in many respects. l It errs in 
 deficient feeding, in deficient clothing, in deficient 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 249 
 
 exercise (among girls at least),* and in excessive 
 mental application/ (p. 188.) He is an unsparing 
 foe to the cramming system, and wisely observes 
 that those who, in eagerness to cultivate their 
 pupils' minds are reckless of their bodies, do not 
 remember that success in the world depends more 
 on energy than on information ; and that a policy, 
 which in cramming with information undermines 
 energy, is self-defeating, (p. 185.) Of the truth 
 of this I have seen in student life more than 
 one illustration ; a striking case occurring to my 
 memory at this moment, that of a young man 
 full of promise, who used to * say off' all his 
 tasks, even the driest page in history, with scru- 
 pulous accuracy to the dullest detail, and who, 
 soon after he had begun the actual work of 
 teaching, died of congestion of the brain. 
 
 In regard to the second activity of life that 
 which is necessary to gain a livelihood there 
 is no difference of opinion as to its immense 
 importance, and ordinary school work does in a 
 great measure bear directly upon it ; yet, while 
 acknowledging that reading, writing, and arith- 
 metic are taught with an intelligent appreciation 
 of their uses, Spencer says that this is about 
 all that is done to fit youth for the business of 
 
 * See on this subject " Nausicaa," by Rev. Charles 
 Kingsley, in " Good Words/ 7 for January, 1874. 
 
250 HERBERT SPENCER.. 
 
 life. The great bulk of all the other ordinary 
 branches taught has no bearing on the indus- 
 trial activities of life, while the learning, which 
 has, is almost entirely passed over. For, what 
 are the great majority of men employed in ? In 
 the production, preparation, and distribution of 
 commodities. And on what does efficiency in 
 these industries depend ? On knowledge which 
 is in a great measure ignored in our school 
 courses that is, scientific knowledge. To prove 
 this, take first mathematics. Is not some ac- 
 quaintance with this science indispensable in 
 all the higher arts of construction ? The village 
 carpenter, equally with the builder of a Britannia 
 bridge, makes hourly reference to its principles. 
 The surveyor, the architect, the builder, the 
 mason, and the various artisans engaged in 
 building a house are all guided by mathematical 
 truths. The same remark holds for railway 
 making, for the construction of docks and har- 
 bours, and for the sinking of mines. Out of 
 geometry, as applied to astronomy, has grown 
 the art of navigation, which has so enormously 
 increased our foreign commerce. Then there is 
 the application of mechanics on which the success 
 of modern manufactures depends. To machinery 
 we are indebted for almost all our comforts 
 and luxuries. Trace the history of the break- 
 
SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 251 
 
 fast roll, and think of the soil, the seed, the 
 crop, all wrought by machinery ; and the flour 
 made into bread and biscuits by the same agency. 
 Take the house in which you live, the clothing, 
 you wear, the book you read, are they not all 
 products of machinery ? Pass next to physics. 
 Joined with mathematics it has given us the 
 steam-engine, which does the work of millions of 
 labourers ; the thermometer, the microscope, the 
 safety lamp, the mariner's compass, the telegraph. 
 Still more numerous are our obligations to 
 chemistry ; to biology, the science of life, which 
 underlies the operations of farming and the regu- 
 lation of diet for man and brute, and to which 
 the superiority of English to Continental farming 
 is mainly due. Lastly, there is the science of 
 sociology, or science of society, the students of 
 which are men who daily look at the state of 
 the money market, and whose mercantile opera- 
 tions are decided by the probable crops of corn r 
 cotton, sugar, &c., the chances of war, the law 
 of supply and demand, their success being depen- 
 dent in every instance on the correctness of their 
 judgment. In fact, to every one engaged in 
 the business of life, a knowledge of science in 
 some of its departments is of fundamental im- 
 portance. And on this knowledge depends in 
 a great degree his chance of gaining a good 
 
252 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 livelihood and if this has been true in the past, 
 it will be more so in the future ; yet, strange 
 to say, this knowledge is that which is almost 
 entirely left out in our school -courses. Teach 
 science, therefore, is the moral pointed by Mr. 
 Spencer. But should we teach science to every- 
 body ? This is clearly impossible ; and, in many 
 instances, as Mr. Quick observes, the knowledge 
 of the science which underlies an operation con- 
 fers no practical utility whatever. ' No one sees 
 the better for understanding the structure of the 
 eye, and the undulatory theory of light. In 
 swimming or rowing, a senior wrangler has no 
 advantage over a man who is entirely ignorant 
 about the laws of fluid pressure/* And in many 
 instances, as Spencer acknowledges, it is cheaper 
 for business men to call in the aid of a man of 
 science ; the brewer, if his business is extensive, 
 finds it pay to keep a chemist on the premises ; 
 and the landowner, who would sink a coal-mine 
 or open up the hillside to find valuable ore, will 
 find it profitable to call in the professional 
 geologist or mining engineer. Spencer's remarks 
 are true, however, to the extent that a man 
 should by all means make it a point to study 
 the science of his particular trade, occupation, 
 
 * " Educational Reformers," p. 236. 
 
NURSERY LEGISLA TION. 
 
 253 
 
 or profession and teachers, as much as other 
 men, need this advice. 
 
 In the third class of activities, viz., those 
 which have for their end the rearing and disci- 
 pline of offspring, the school-teacher has no 
 direct interest. But parents, and especially 
 mothers, should, in Spencer's opinion, study 
 more or less the principles which guide school 
 teachers in their methods of discipline. Spen- 
 cer is severe on the nursery legislation of the 
 young mother who, 'but a few years ago, was 
 at school, where her memory was crammed 
 with words, and names, and dates, and her re- 
 flective faculties scarcely in the slightest degree 
 exercised where not one idea was given her 
 respecting the methods of dealing with the 
 opening minds of children, and where her dis- 
 cipline did not in the least fit her for think- 
 ing out methods of her own. She knows 
 nothing about the nature of the emotions, their 
 order of evolution, their functions, or where 
 use ends and abuse begins. This and that 
 kind of action, which are quite normal and 
 beneficial, she perpetually thwarts, and so dimin- 
 ishes the child's happiness and profit, injures 
 its temper and her own, and produces estrange- 
 ment; other actions, which she thinks it desira- 
 ble to encourage, she gets performed by threats 
 
254 HERBERT SPEXCER. 
 
 and bribes, or by exciting a desire for applause, 
 considering little what the inward motive may 
 -be, so long as the outward conduct conforms ; 
 and thus cultivating hypocrisy, and fear, and 
 selfishness, in place of good feeling. While 
 insisting on truthfulness she constantly sets an 
 example of untruth by threatening penalties 
 which she does not inflict. While inculcating 
 self-control, she hourly visits on her little ones 
 angry scoldings for acts undeserving of them. 
 She has not the remotest idea that in the nur- 
 sery, as in the world, that alone is the truly 
 salutary discipline which visits on all conduct, 
 good or bad, the natural consequences the 
 consequences, pleasurable or painful, which in 
 -the nature of things such conduct tends to 
 bring.' (pp. 27, 28.) And then the culture of 
 her children's minds is not this mismanaged in 
 .a similar manner ? Ignorant of psychology, she 
 thrusts a primer into the hands of her little one, 
 instead of training it to observe the objects and 
 processes of the household, the streets, and the 
 fields till it has acquired a tolerably exhaus- 
 tive knowledge of which, no child should be 
 introduced to books.' 
 
 The spirit of this protest applies likewise to 
 untrained and unthinking teachers, who display 
 in their modes of teaching and discipline much 
 
SCHOOL TEACHING AND THE CITIZEN. 255 
 
 of the waywardness and ignorance ascribed to 
 inexperienced parents. Spencer does not state 
 at what stage book-learning should come in ; 
 but I am myself of opinion that if Locke's 
 plan of ' playing ' the child into learning is 
 adopted, the primer may go on, pari passu> 
 with the training of the observing powers. 
 Books and birds, and flowers, animals and sto- 
 ries about them, trees and illustrative letter- 
 press, would thus go hand in hand, each throw- 
 ing light on, and adding greater interest to the 
 other. 
 
 From the parental functions, Spencer passes 
 to the political, and inquires what our school 
 courses do to fit a man for his duties as a citi- 
 zen. Positively nothing, he finds, for the only 
 branch bearing on the subject is history, and 
 what form does it commonly take? A biogra- 
 phy of kings, and an account of battles and 
 their causes, facts amusing and interesting 
 enough, but of no use in enabling a man to 
 vote judiciously at the next election. There- 
 upon he goes into a disquisition on what con- 
 stitutes history, , properly so-called. I. Let us 
 have an account of the government of a coun- 
 try, with as much information as possible about 
 its structure, principles, methods, prejudices, cor- 
 ruptions, &c. II. A parallel description of its 
 
256 HERDER T SPENCER. . 
 
 ecclesiastical government, its ceremonials, creeds, 
 and religious ideas. III. The control exercised 
 by class over class, as displayed in social ob- 
 servances, in titles, salutations, and forms of 
 address. IV. The customs which regulated 
 popular life indoors and out of doors, includ- 
 ing the relations of the sexes, and the relations 
 between parents and children. V. The prevail- 
 ing superstitions. VI. The leading industries 
 of the people, how trades were regulated, and 
 what was the connection between employer and 
 employed, what were the agencies for distri- 
 buting commodities, what were the means of 
 communication, what the circulating medium. 
 VII. The intellectual condition of .the nation 
 should also be depicted, the arts and sciences 
 illustrated, architecture, sculpture, painting, dress, 
 music, poetry, and fiction. VIII. A sketch of 
 the daily lives of the people, their food, homes, 
 and amusements. IX, and last, The moral con- 
 dition of the people should be carefully exhi- 
 bited, as indicated in their laws, habits, proverbs, 
 and deeds, (p. 35.) 
 
 In fact, such a mass of information as one 
 finds in Knight's " Pictorial History of England," 
 of seven or eight volumes, thick octavo. This, 
 alone, is the kind of information which can 
 be of service to the citizen in regulating his 
 
SCHOOL BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. 257 
 
 political life, and which Spencer elevates into 
 a science, calling it "Descriptive Sociology." 
 This is the latest of the sciences, however, and 
 is not meant for children. If history be taught 
 to children, it should not be history of the dry 
 and bald type usually presented. Bare outlines* 
 which have little or no educative value, are 
 given first, instead of interesting stories. Dr. 
 Arnold's plan of a child's first history book, a 
 picture of the memorable deeds which would 
 best appeal to the child's imagination, arranged 
 in order of time, but with no other connection, 
 would be infinitely preferable. Miss Yonge's 
 " Golden Deeds " is such a book, or some book 
 in the style of Macaulay's " Essays," suited to 
 the capacity of children. Biographies of great 
 men should precede any history, and as a 
 model for biographies, we may take " Plutarch's 
 Lives."* 
 
 And now we come to the last activity of 
 human life, that which busies itself with the 
 enjoyments of nature, of literature, and of the 
 fine arts. 'Without painting, sculpture, music, 
 poetry, and the emotions produced by natural 
 beauty of every kind, life would lose half its 
 charm/ (p. 37.) But as these occupy the leisure 
 part of life, so should they occupy the leisure part 
 * " Thoughts and Suggestions in Educational Reformers. '' 
 
258 HERBER T SPENCER. 
 
 of education, (p. 39.) What knowledge best fits 
 a man for this sphere of activity ? The answer is 
 still the same science without which there can 
 be neither perfect production, nor full appreciation. 
 He that would enjoy the creations of the sculp- 
 tor must, like the artist himself, be acquainted 
 with the structure of the human frame. From 
 ignorance of science, Mr. John Lewis, careful 
 painter as he is, casts the shadow of a lattice- 
 window in sharply defined lines upon an opposite 
 wall. It is want of a knowledge of musical science 
 that tolerates the swarms of worthless ballads 
 that infest our drawing-rooms, which err against 
 science by setting to music ideas that are not 
 emotional enough to prompt musical expression. 
 In poetry the same thing holds good ; for, though 
 the poet is born, not made, it is only when genius 
 is married to science that the highest results 
 can be produced. In fact, science is in itself 
 poetic, and opens up realms of poetry where, 
 to the unscientific, all is a blank. In proof read 
 Hugh Miller's works on geology, or Mr. Lewes's 
 " Sea-side Studies." What additional interest 
 does science give in looking at nature ; a drop of 
 water, a snow flake, a rounded boulder marked 
 with parallel scratches, plants in the hedge-row, 
 insects in a garden, birds in the fields and woods, 
 fossils in the neglected quarry ; for the proper 
 
RELATIVE VALUE OF KNOWLEDGES. 
 
 259 
 
 study and enjoyment of all these, scientific 
 culture is the proper preparation. 
 
 In discussing the relative value of knowledges, 
 Spencer is fully alive to the fact that knowledge 
 has two values, value as knowledge per se, and 
 value as discipline, or, in other words, a use 
 for guiding conduct, and a use as mental exer- 
 cise. So, after ascertaining the chief kinds of 
 knowledge useful for purposes of guidance, he 
 briefly considers what kinds are best for dis- 
 cipline ; and the result he arrives at is that 
 what is best for the one end is best for the 
 other. * It would be utterly contrary to the 
 beautiful economy of nature/ he says, 'if one 
 kind of culture were needed for the gaining of 
 information, and another kind were needed as 
 a mental gymnastic/ (p. 46.) 
 
 The result of all inquiry on this subject leads 
 to the conclusion that the highest power of a 
 faculty results from the discharge of those duties 
 which the conditions of life require it to dis- 
 charge ; and, a priori, the same law holds 
 throughout education. The education of most 
 value for guidance must at the same time be 
 the education of most value for discipline, (p. 47.) 
 In evidence, he discusses the rival claims of 
 classics and science as branches of learning. The 
 memory is well cultivated and strengthened by 
 
2 6o BERBER T SPENCER. 
 
 the study of languages, say the classicists. The 
 truth is, replies Spencer, that the sciences afford 
 far wider fields for the exercise of memory. Is it a 
 slight task to remember everything about our solar 
 system, to remember the number of compound 
 substances to which chemistry daily adds, to re- 
 member the enormous mass of phenomena pre- 
 sented by the earth's crust and by the fossils it 
 contains, to remember the quantity of detail 
 involved in human anatomy, the number of 
 plants distinguished by botanists, and the varied 
 forms of animal life estimated by zoologists ? 
 Surely, then, science, cultivated even to a very 
 moderate extent, affords adequate exercise for 
 memory. To say the least, it involves quite as 
 good a discipline for this faculty as language does. 
 And mark, further, that while for the training of 
 mere memory, science is as good as, if not better 
 than language, it has an immense superiority in 
 the kind of memory it trains ; in short, while 
 language trains the memory, science exercises 
 both memory and understanding. But Spencer 
 seems to omit a circumstance which has a very 
 important bearing on this discussion viz., Would 
 these sciences he recommends for study be under- 
 standable by children?* The upshot would be 
 that only the results of the various sciences would 
 * " Educational Reformers," p. 233. 
 
CLASSICS AND SCIENCE. 2 6l 
 
 be attempted ; and the schoolboy would be called 
 upon to get up lists of plants and of chemicals 
 in much the same way as he gets up lists of 
 the Saxon kings, or of irregular verbs. 
 
 It is true that, if the elements of any single 
 science, such as physiology or botany, were 
 taught in a scientific way, the memory equally 
 with the understanding would receive healthful 
 exercise, but to substitute a course of sciences 
 for all the linguistic learning now in practice 
 would prove very unsuitable for youthful train- 
 ing. A good curriculum should have a sprink- 
 ling of both languages and science. To judge 
 between the two, science versus language, as a 
 means of discipline, the teacher should try with 
 his own family the result of instruction in any 
 given science, such as botany, during a summer 
 vacation, and see whether or not the study 
 results in a cultivation of the judgment and 
 of the memory. I have known the observing 
 powers of a child to be beneficially exercised 
 in this way ; but it was owing to the com- 
 panionship in walks of father and son, and a 
 constant tuition, which could not be undertaken 
 by the school teacher. 
 
 Besides memory, says Spencer, science culti- 
 vates the judgment, an advantage not possessed 
 by languages. On this point I cannpt agree 
 
2 62 HERBER T SPENCER. 
 
 with him, as I have had personal experience 
 to the contrary ; and I know of no better field 
 for the exercise of judgment than the critical 
 reading of classic authors. Thirdly, he thinks 
 that science is best for moral discipline. The 
 learning of languages, he says, leads to dogmatic 
 teaching, and to unquestioning submission to 
 authority. Such and such are the meanings of 
 the words, says the teacher or the dictionary. 
 Quite opposite is the mental tone acquired in 
 the cultivation of science, which makes constant 
 appeal to individual reason, and encourages 
 every one to test its facts. Science asks a 
 man to believe nothing without seeing it to be 
 true. Granted ; but is it not also true that the 
 intelligent teaching of languages proceeds on no 
 such dogmatic ground as that which is here 
 assumed. Lastly, says Spencer, the discipline 
 of science is superior to that of languages, be- 
 cause of the religious culture that it gives, 
 religious in the widest and highest sense. Pro- 
 fessor Huxley echoes the sentiment when he 
 says, " True science and true religion are twin 
 sisters, and the separation of either from the other 
 is sure to prove the death of both." In this 
 sentiment, Spencer is, I think, fairly in the clouds ; 
 for, in my experience, I have not found men 
 of science to be more religious that is, more 
 
LANGUAGE SUPERIOR TO SCIENCE. 263 
 
 honourable, more honest, more truthful, more 
 self-sacrificing than their neighbours ; and I do 
 not see why a man who gloats over the anatomy 
 of a chimpanzee, becomes pale and emaciated 
 over the crucible, or spends anxious hours in 
 calculating the wave-length of light, should 
 necessarily, and more than the student of lan- 
 guages, have his thoughts turned from nature 
 to nature's God. I have spent weeks and 
 months in the absorbing study of botany, and 
 under the most favourable circumstances for the 
 creation of the religious feeling, and I cannot 
 say that my frame of mind was more religious 
 than when I have been engaged with other pur- 
 suits. Religious life is a thing altogether 
 different and independent of either classics or 
 science, and may be enjoyed to the full by a 
 man who is ignorant of both. As regards mental 
 discipline, the claims of languages and science 
 are pretty equally potent, and if we limit the 
 rivalry to modern languages and science, they 
 are much on an equality as regards useful- 
 ness. And an advantage I have to claim for 
 languages, which Spencer entirely ignores, is 
 the command of words, and the training in 
 composition which the study gives, while the 
 study of science may leave a man as illiterate 
 and powerless in the use of words as before. 
 
264 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 This advantage, most students of science will 
 confess, is really the conclusion which we must 
 arrive at if experience is to be our guide. 
 
 Thus to the question, what knowledge is of 
 most worth, the uniform reply is science. This 
 is the verdict on all the counts. For direct 
 self-preservation, or the maintenance of life and 
 health, the all-important knowledge is science. 
 For that indirect self-preservation which we 
 call gaining a livelihood, the knowledge of 
 greatest value is science. For the due dis- 
 charge of parental functions, the proper guid- 
 ance is to be found in science. For that inter- 
 pretation of national life, past and present, 
 without which the citizen cannot rightly regu- 
 late his conduct, the indispensable key is science. 
 Alike for the most perfect production, and highest 
 enjoyment of art in all its forms, the needful 
 preparation is still science. And for purposes 
 of discipline, intellectual, moral, and religious, 
 the most efficient study is once more, science. 
 And yet, adds the champion of science, this study, 
 immensely transcending all others in import- 
 ance, is that which in an age of boasted educa- 
 tion receives the least attention. Science is 
 the Cinderella in the family of knowledge, 
 to whom has been committed all the work, and 
 to whose skill, intelligence, and devotion all 
 
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. 265 
 
 conveniences and gratifications have been due, 
 and who has been kept in the background for 
 centuries that her haughty sisters might flaunt 
 their fripperies in the eyes of the world. The 
 day is at hand, however, when the positions 
 will be changed, and science will reign supreme, 
 highest alike in worth and beauty, (p. 55.) 
 
 On intellectual education, which comes more 
 directly within the sphere of the schoolmaster's 
 duty, Spencer's book is very suggestive. His 
 notion of what a teacher should be is very high. 
 ' The mistress of a dame's school/ he says, ' can 
 hear spelling lessons, and any hedge schoolmaster 
 can drill boys in the multiplication table ; but 
 to teach spelling rightly by using the powers 
 of the letters instead of their names, or to in- 
 struct in numerical combinations by experi- 
 mental synthesis, a modicum of understanding 
 is needful ; and to pursue a like rational course 
 through the entire range of studies asks an 
 amount of judgment, of invention, of intellec- 
 tual sympathy, of analytical faculty, which we 
 shall never see applied to it while the tutorial 
 office is held in such small esteem. True educa- 
 tion is practicable only by a true philosopher, 
 (p. 70.) 
 
 He rejoices that several old methods of teach- 
 ing have been of late abandoned, among others 
 
266 HERBER T SPENCER. 
 
 learning by rote, about which Montaigne so 
 pithily remarked, ' Savoir par c&ur riest pas 
 savoir] and teaching by rules, giving the net 
 product of inquiry without the inquiry that 
 leads to it, an inefficient and enervating, easy- 
 come, easy-go process ; the new and more natural 
 method being particulars first, and then the gene- 
 ralization ; hence that intensely stupid custom, 
 the teaching grammar to children, should be 
 abandoned, grammar being, as M. Marcel puts 
 it, not the stepping-stone, but the finishing in- 
 strument ; and, as Mr. Wyse argues, ' Grammar 
 is the science, the philosophy of language ; and 
 in following the process of nature, neither indi- 
 viduals nor nations ever arrive at the science 
 first' (p. 62.) He hails at the same time the 
 advent of new practices, the most important of 
 which is the systematic culture of the powers of 
 observation, on the acuteness of which success 
 in life so much depends. Artists, naturalists, and 
 men of science all alike depend on their observ- 
 ing powers ; the physician as much as the 
 engineer ; and who is the philosopher but one 
 who observes relationships of things which others 
 had overlooked ; the poet, but one who sees the 
 fine facts in nature, which all recognise when 
 pointed out, but did not before remark, (p. 63.) 
 And what is the common characteristic of the 
 
MENTAL EVOLUTION. 2 6/ 
 
 changes that have been made, and are now 
 being made in teaching ? Is it not an increas- 
 ing conformity to the methods of nature ? The 
 relinquishment of early forcing, against which 
 nature rebels, and the leaving of the first years 
 for exercise of the limbs and senses 3hew this ; 
 the superseding of rote lessons by lessons orally 
 and experimentally given like those of the field 
 and play-ground shews this ; the system of 
 object lessons shews this ; teaching from the 
 concrete, the disuse of teaching by rules, and 
 the tendency to make learning attractive, all point 
 in the same direction, (p. 66.) In fact, we are 
 on the high way towards the doctrine enunciated 
 by Pestalozzi, that, alike in its order and in its 
 methods, education must conform to the natural 
 process of mental evolution that there is a cer- 
 tain sequence in which the faculties sponta- 
 neously develop, and a certain kind of know- 
 ledge which each requires during its develop- 
 ment, and that it is for us to ascertain this 
 sequence and supply this knowledge. All the 
 improvements above alluded to are partial appli- 
 cations of this general principle. A nebulous 
 perception of it now prevails among teachers ; 
 and it is daily more insisted on in educational 
 works. 'The method of nature is the arche- 
 type of all methods/ says M. Marcel. 'The 
 
2 68 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 vital principle in the pursuit is to enable the 
 pupil rightly to instruct himself/ writes Mr. 
 Wyse. (p. 66.) Pestalozzi hit the idea, but 
 failed to work it out, and his idea remains to 
 be realised, and it may be done, in a measure 
 at least, by the aid of the following principles, 
 which should guide the educator in his work. 
 
 (p. 73.) 
 
 I. We should proceed from the simple to the 
 complex, both in our choice of subjects, and in 
 the way in which each subject is taught. We 
 should begin with but few subjects at once, 
 and as new faculties of the mind under train- 
 ing come into play, we should successively add 
 to these, until we finally carry on all subjects 
 abreast. 
 
 II. The development of the mind is an ad- 
 vance from the indefinite to the definite. First 
 
 ? principles and thoughts are extremely vague, 
 hence it is impossible to put precise ideas into 
 the undeveloped mind. Some teachers sup- 
 pose that when the verbal forms in which 
 such ideas are wrapped up have been learnt, 
 the ideas themselves have been acquired. Cross- 
 examination proves the contrary, and it turns 
 out either that the words have been committed 
 to memory, with little or no thought about 
 their meaning, or else that the perception of 
 
CHILD'S FIRST CONCEPTIONS. 269 
 
 their meaning, which has been gained, is a very 
 cloudy one. Be content then to set out with 
 crude notions, trusting to time and experience 
 to make them perfect, and the scientific formulae 
 should be given only when the conceptions are 
 perfected. I confess that I agree with the 
 author of " Educational Reformers," in not feel- 
 ing very certain of the truth of this principle, 
 or of its application if true. It is right to re- 
 member that a child's intellectual conceptions 
 are at first vague ; but this is rather a fact 
 than a principle. 
 
 III. We should proceed from the concrete to 
 the abstract, a principle identical in some re- 
 spects with that first stated, though in others 
 essentially different. In conformity with this 
 principle, Pestalozzi made the actual counting 
 of things precede the teaching of abstract rules 
 in arithmetic. The use of the ball-frame fur- 
 ther exemplifies it, as also does Professor De 
 Morgan's mode of explaining the decimal nota- 
 tion. Marcel, repudiating the old system of 
 tables, teaches weights arid measures by refer- 
 ring to the actual foot and yard, pound and 
 ounce, gallon and quart, and lets the discovery 
 of their relationships be experimental. The use 
 of geographical models, and models of the regu- 
 lar bodies, as introductory to geography and 
 
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 geometry respectively, is on the same principle. 
 In this way the child's mind acquires know- 
 ledge as all mankind have learnt it. The 
 truths of number, of form, of relationship in 
 position, were all originally drawn from ob- 
 jects, and to present these truths to the child 
 in the concrete is to let him learn them as the 
 race learnt them. By and bye, perhaps, it will 
 come to be seen that he can learn them in no 
 other way, for if he is made to repeat them 
 as abstractions, these can have no meaning for 
 him until he finds that they are simply state- 
 ments of what he intuitively discerns, (p. 64.) 
 
 IV. The education of the child must accord 
 both in mode and arrangement with the educa- 
 \ tion of mankind, considered historically ; in 
 other words, the genesis of knowledge in the 
 individual must follow the same course as the 
 genesis of knowledge in the race. If there be 
 an order in which the human race has mas- 
 tered its various kinds of knowledge, there will 
 arise in every child an aptitude to acquire these 
 kinds of knowledge in the same order. Hence 
 education should be a repetition of civilization 
 in little and in deciding upon the right method 
 of education, an inquiry into the method of 
 civilization will help us. This thesis is of 
 course quite beyond the sphere of the elemen- 
 
A LESSON IN PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 271 
 
 tary teacher's duties ; but two very useful con- 
 clusions result from such an inquiry. 
 
 V. One of them is, that in teaching we should 
 proceed from the empirical to the rational, or / 
 experiment first and generalization after. In 
 the history of human progress art has preceded 
 science, practice and experience lead to organ- 
 ized knowledge or science. Every study, there- 
 fore, should have a purely experimental intro- 
 duction, and only after an ample fund of ob- 
 servations have been accumulated should rea- 
 soning begin. As illustrative applications of 
 this rule, we may instance the modern course 
 of teaching language before grammar, not after 
 it, or the ordinary custom of prefacing perspec- 
 tive by practical drawing. As an example of 
 a first lesson in empirical perspective, he gives 
 the following : 
 
 ' A plate of glass so framed as to stand ver- 
 tically on the table being placed before the 
 pupil, and a book or like simple object laid 
 on the other side of it, the pupil is requested, 
 while keeping the eye in one position, to make 
 ink dots on the glass, so that they may coin- 
 cide with, or hide the corners of this object. 
 He is next told to join these dots by lines; 
 on doing which he perceives that the lines he 
 makes hide, or coincide with the outlines of the 
 
2/2 
 
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 object. And then by putting a sheet of paper 
 on the other side of the glass, it is made 
 manifest to him that the lines he has thus 
 drawn represent the object as he saw it." (p. 92.) 
 
 A series of such simple and attractive exercises 
 will soon familiarise the pupil with the principles 
 of the art, and give him a facility in the practice 
 of it. First lessons in geometry should be given 
 on a similar plan, and Mr. Wyse's method is 
 quoted in illustration, the child to begin with a 
 cube, which at once exhibits points, straight lines, 
 parallel lines, angles, parallelograms. &c. From 
 this he advances to a globe, which furnishes him 
 with elementary notions of the circle, and of 
 curves generally. When he is familiar with 
 solids, he may substitute planes by an easy 
 transition. Thus the cube can be cut into thin 
 divisions and placed on paper, and he will then 
 see as many plane rectangles as he has divisions ; 
 so with all the others. Globes may be treated 
 in the same manner, and the pupil will thus 
 perceive how surfaces really are generated, and 
 be enabled to abstract them with facility in every 
 solid. He has thus acquired the alphabet and 
 reading of geometry, and he next proceeds to 
 write it, which is most easily done by placing the 
 planes on a piece of paper, and passing the pencil 
 round them ; and when this has been done fre- 
 
RATIONAL GEOMETRY. 
 
 273 
 
 quently, the plane may be put at a little distance, 
 and the child required to copy it, and so on. A 
 stock of geometrical conceptions having been 
 obtained, in some such manner as this, the child 
 may be called upon to test the correctness of 
 figures drawn by eye, and subsequently he should 
 be required to make figures out of card-board, 
 his efforts in which will go far to qualify him 
 for beginning the study of rational geometry. A 
 branch of knowledge which, as commonly taught, 
 is dry and even repulsive, may thus, by following 
 the method of nature, be made extremely 
 interesting and beneficial, (p. 96.) The pupil 
 thus trained will come to regard the demonstra- 
 tions of Euclid as the missing supplements to 
 his familiar problems. His well-disciplined facul- 
 ties will enable him easily to master its successive 
 propositions, and to appreciate their value; and 
 he will have the occasional gratification of finding 
 some of his own methods proved to be true. It 
 only remains to add that his mind will presently 
 arrive at a fit condition for that most valuable 
 of all exercises for the reflective faculties the 
 making of original demonstrations, (p. 98.) 
 
 VI. In education, self-development should be 
 encouraged to the uttermost ; a second corollary 
 from the principle, fourth in order. Children 
 should be led to make their own investigations, 
 
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 and to draw their own inferences. They should 
 -be told as little as possible, and induced to dis- 
 cover as much as possible. Humanity has pro- 
 gressed solely by self-instruction, and in order to 
 achieve the best results each mind must progress 
 after the same fashion. ' Those who have been 
 brought up under the ordinary school drill, and 
 have carried away with them the idea that 
 education is practicable only in that style, will 
 think it hopeless to make children their own 
 teachers. If, however, they will consider that the 
 all-important knowledge of surrounding objects, 
 which a child gets in its early years, is got 
 without help if they will remember that the 
 child is self-taught in the use of its mother 
 tongue if they will estimate the amount of that 
 experience of life, that out-of-school wisdom, 
 which every boy gathers for himself if they will 
 think how many minds have struggled up un- 
 aided, not only through the mysteries of our 
 irrationally-planned curriculum, but through hosts 
 of other obstacles besides : they will find it a not 
 unreasonable conclusion that, if the subjects be 
 put before him in right order and right form, any 
 pupil of ordinary capacity will surmount his 
 successive difficulties with but little assistance. 
 Who indeed can watch the ceaseless observation 
 and inquiry and inference going on in a child's 
 
HO W TO IMPAR T INITIA TOR Y KNO WLEDGE. 
 
 257 
 
 mind, or listen to its acute remarks on matters 
 within the range of its faculties, without perceiving 
 that these powers it manifests, if brought to bear 
 systematically upon studies within the same 
 range, would readily master them without help ? 
 This need for perpetual telling results from our 
 stupidity, not from the child's. We drag it away 
 from the facts in which it is interested, and which 
 it is actively assimilating of itself. We put before 
 it facts far too complex for it to understand, 
 and therefore distasteful to it. Finding that it 
 will not voluntarily acquire these facts, we thrust 
 them into its mind by force of threats and punish- 
 ment. By thus denying the knowledge it craves, 
 and cramming it with knowledge it cannot digest, 
 we produce a morbid state of its faculties ; and 
 a consequent disgust for knowledge in general. 
 And when, as a result partly of the stolid indo- 
 lence we have brought on, and partly of still 
 continued unfitness in its studies, the child can 
 understand nothing without explanation, and 
 becomes a mere passive recipient of our instruc- 
 tion, we infer that education must necessarily 
 be carried on thus. Having by our method A 
 induced helplessness, we make the helplessness / 
 a reason for our method. Clearly, then, the 
 experience of pedagogues cannot rationally be 
 quoted against the system we are advocating. 
 
2/6 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 And whoever sees this will see that we may 
 safely follow the discipline of nature throughout 
 may by a skilful ministration make the mind 
 as self-developing in its later stages as it is in 
 its earlier ones ; and that only by doing this can 
 we produce the highest power and activity/ (pp. 
 77-79) This self-instruction begins, as we all 
 know, in the cradle. The wide-eyed gaze of the 
 infant at surrounding objects, those fingerings 
 and suckings of everything it can lay hold of, 
 these open-mouthed listenings to every sound, 
 are first steps in the series which ends in the 
 discovery of unseen planets, the invention of cal- 
 culating engines, the production of great paint- 
 ings, or the composition of symphonies and 
 operas, (p. 80.) Materials on which the faculties 
 may exercise themselves should therefore be pre- 
 sented in due variety ; we should provide for 
 the infant a sufficiency of objects presenting 
 different degrees and kinds of resistance, a suffi- 
 ciency of objects reflecting different amounts and 
 qualities of light ; and a sufficiency of sounds 
 contrasted in their loudness, their pitch and their 
 timbre, the earliest impressions which the mind 
 can assimilate being the sensations produced by 
 resistance, light, and sound. The ordinary prac- 
 tices of the nursery fulfil these early requirements 
 of education to a considerable degree ; but much 
 
INFANT EDUCA TION. 
 
 277 
 
 more might be done. Object lessons should be 
 given at a later stage, and here we must be 
 careful not to tell the child the facts to be 
 observed, but, on the contrary, we must listen 
 to all the child has to tell us about each object ; 
 we must induce it to say everything it can think 
 of about such objects, and occasionally draw its 
 attention to facts it has not observed, with the 
 view of leading it to notice them itself, wherever 
 they recur. Further, 'object lessons should be 
 extended to a range of things far wider, and 
 continued to a period far later than now. They 
 should not be limited to the contents of the 
 house, but should include those of the fields and 
 the hedges, the quarry, and the sea-shore. They 
 should not cease with early childhood ; but 
 should be so kept up during youth, as insensibly 
 to merge into the investigations of the naturalist 
 and the man of science. Here again we have 
 but to follow nature's leadings. Where can be 
 seen an intenser delight than that of children 
 picking up new flowers and watching new insects, 
 or hoarding pebbles and shells ? Every botanist 
 who has had children with him in the woods 
 and lanes must have noticed how eagerly they 
 joined in his pursuits, how keenly they searched 
 out plants for him, how intently they watched 
 while he examined them, how they overwhelmed 
 
278 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 him with questions. The consistent follower of 
 Bacon, the ' servant ancfinterpreter of nature/ 
 will see that we ought to adopt the mode of 
 culture thus indicated. Having become familiar 
 with the simpler properties of inorganic objects, 
 the child should by the same process be led 
 on to an exhaustive examination of the things 
 it picks up in its daily walks, the less complex 
 facts they present being alone noticed at first ; 
 in plants the colours, numbers, and forms of 
 the petals, and shapes of the stalks and leaves ; 
 in insects the numbers of the wings, legs, and 
 antennae, and their colours. As these become 
 fully appreciated and invariably observed, further 
 facts may be successively introduced the system 
 pursued throughout being that of making it the 
 child's ambition to say respecting everything 
 it finds all that can be said. Then, when a fit 
 age has been reached, the means of preserving 
 plants and insects should be supplied an admir- 
 able introduction to the study of botany and 
 physiology/ (pp. 85, 87.) 
 
 Again, the child's earliest attempts to draw 
 should by all means be encouraged, and here 
 colouring should precede everything else. A 
 box of paints and a brush, these are the treasures, 
 and the greater delight in colour, which is not 
 only conspicuous in children, but persists in most 
 
EARL Y LESSONS IN DRA WING. 2/9 
 
 persons throughout life, should be continuously 
 employed as the natural stimulus to the mastery 
 of the comparatively difficult and unattractive 
 form. If, before formal lessons in drawing are 
 at all possible, we can, by furnishing cheap 
 woodcuts to be painted, and simple outline maps 
 to be tinted, pleasurably draw out the faculty 
 of colour, and incidentally produce some fami- 
 liarity with the outlines of things and countries, 
 and some ability to move the brush steadily, it 
 must happen that when the age for lessons in 
 drawing is reached, there will exist a facility, that 
 would else have been absent. Time will have 
 been gained, and trouble both to teacher and 
 pupil saved, (p. 90.) 
 
 This method of self-evolution possesses the 
 great advantage of creating a vividness and per- 
 manency of impression which the usual methods 
 can never produce. Any piece of knowledge 
 which the pupil has himself acquired any prob- 
 lem which he has himself solved, becomes, by 
 virtue of the conquest, much more thoroughly his 
 own than it could else be, or as M. Marcel ex- 
 presses it, What the learner discovers by mental 
 exertion is better known than what is told him/ 
 This self-culture is of course inculcated by various 
 other educationists, Pestalozzi, Wilderspin, and 
 Stow. 
 
2 8O HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 VII. Finally, we should take care to make the 
 acquirement of knowledge pleasurable, a principle 
 strongly inculcated by Locke, and that is being 
 acted on more and more. Asceticism is dis- 
 appearing out of education, as out of life ; lessons 
 cease before the child evinces symptoms of weari- 
 ness ; there are short breaks during school hours, 
 excursions into the country, amusing- lectures, 
 choral songs, and other traits which denote the 
 change that has come over the spirit of school 
 legislation. Methods that are found to be pro- 
 ductive of interest and delight are proved by 
 experience to be the right methods. A pleasur- 
 able state of feeling is far more favourable to 
 intellectual action than a state of indifference or 
 disgust, a truth very beautifully expressed by 
 Locke. Grave moral consequences also depend 
 upon the habitual pleasure or pain which daily 
 lessons produce. No one can compare the faces 
 and manners of two boys the one made happy 
 by mastering interesting subjects, and the other 
 made miserable by disgust with his studies, by 
 consequent inability, by cold looks, by threats, 
 by punishment without seeing that the disposi- 
 tion of the one is being benefited, and that of 
 the other injured. Both temper and health are 
 favourably affected in the one case, while in 
 the other there is danger of constitutional de- 
 
TEACHING GEOGRAPHY. 28 1 
 
 pression. There is yet another result of no 
 small moment. The relationship between 
 teachers and pupils is rendered friendly and in- 
 fluential or antagonistic and powerless, according 
 as the system of culture produces happiness or 
 misery. Human beings are at the mercy of their 
 associated ideas ; and a daily minister of pain 
 cannot fail to be regarded with secret dislike, 
 while one who encourages them to effort, and 
 satisfies them with success cannot but be liked, 
 (pp. 102, 103.) 
 
 This completes the list of those excellent 
 principles, to which Spencer might have added 
 an equally excellent one, 'from the known to 
 the unknown/ on which every teacher of skill 
 and experience acts every day; e.g., in the 
 teaching of geography, he begins with the note- 
 worthy land-marks of the parish in which the 
 school is situated, river, hills, plain, valley, and 
 passing to the points of the compass, and to 
 the remainder of the county (which is illus- 
 trated by a black-board drawing, or a local 
 map), he proceeds to the whole country, and 
 to the other countries adjacent, leaving the more 
 distant and less known to the last. f A mar- 
 vellous instance of the neglect of this principle 
 is found in the practice of teaching Latin 
 grammar before English grammar. As Pro- 
 
282 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 fessor Seeley has well pointed out, children 
 bring with them to school the knowledge of 
 language in its concrete form. They may soon 
 be taught to observe the language they already 
 know, and to find, almost for themselves, some 
 of the main divisions of words in it. But in- 
 stead of availing himself of the child's previous 
 knowledge, the schoolmaster takes a new and 
 difficult language, differing as much as possible 
 from English, a new and difficult science, that 
 of grammar, conveyed, too, in a new and 
 difficult terminology, and all this he tries to 
 teach at the same time. The consequence is 
 that the science is destroyed, the terminology 
 is either misunderstood, or, more probably, asso- 
 ciated with no ideas, and even the language 
 for which every sacrifice is made is found in 
 nine cases out of ten, never to be acquired at 
 all.' * 
 
 By adhering to the foregoing principles, a 
 taste for continuing the acquisition of know- 
 ledge in after-life will be acquired, and 
 Spencer very truthfully adds, 'the men to 
 whom in boyhood information came in dreary 
 tasks, along with threats of punishment, and 
 who were never led into habits of independent 
 inquiry, are unlikely to be students in after 
 * " Educational Reformers," p. 251. 
 
THE EARLY TREATMENT OF CHILDREN. 283 
 
 years, while those to whom it came in the 
 natural forms, at the proper times, and who 
 remember its facts as not only interesting in 
 themselves, but as the occasions of a long 
 series of gratifying successes, are likely to con- 
 tinue through life the self-instruction commenced 
 in youth.' (p. 104.) 
 
 On the subject of Moral Discipline, Spencer 
 has written a beautiful chapter, which every 
 teacher and parent should read. The moral 
 management of children is, in his opinion, 
 lamentably low. As a general rule, the treat- 
 ment to w T hich they are subjected, is that which 
 the impulse of the moment prompts ; or if cer- 
 tain methods and doctrines do exist, they are 
 those suggested by the remembrance of child- 
 hood, or those adopted from nurses and serv- 
 ants methods devised not by the enlightenment, 
 but by the ignorance of the time. ' What kind 
 of moral discipline is to be expected from a 
 mother, who, time after time, angrily shakes 
 her infant, because it will not suck, which we 
 once saw a mother do ? How much sense of 
 justice is likely to be instilled by a father 
 who, on having his attention drawn by a 
 scream to the fact that his child's finger is 
 jammed between the window-sash and the sill, 
 begins to beat the child instead of releasing 
 
284 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 it ? How very different from this fitful disci- 
 pline is that suggested by nature. When a 
 child falls, or runs its head against the table, 
 it suffers a pain, the remembrance of which 
 tends to make it more careful ; and by repeti- 
 tion of such experiences it is essentially disci- 
 plined into proper guidance of its movements. 
 If it lays hold of the fire-bars, thrusts its hand 
 into a candle-flame, or spills boiling-water on 
 any part of its skin, the resulting burn or 
 scald is a lesson not easily forgotten.* The 
 impression produced has passed into a proverb, 
 " the burnt child dreads the fire." And it should 
 be further borne in mind, that these conse- 
 quences are proportionate to the transgressions. 
 A slight accident brings a slight pain, a more 
 serious one a severer pain. No urchin who 
 stumbles on the door-step suffers in excess of 
 the amount necessary ; but from his daily ex- 
 perience he is left to learn the greater or less 
 penalties of greater or less errors, and to be- 
 have accordingly. And mark, those natural 
 reactions which follow the child's wrong actions 
 are constant, direct, unhesitating, and not to 
 be escaped. No threats, but a silent rigorous 
 performance. If a child runs a pin into its 
 
 * Miss Edgeworth, in " Practical Education/' makes use 
 of the same illustration. 
 
CAUSE AND EFFECT. 285 
 
 fingers, pain follows. If it does it again, there 
 is again the same result. In all its dealings 
 with inorganic nature, it finds this unswerving 
 persistence which listens to no excuse, and 
 from which there is no appeal ; and very soon 
 recognising this stern though beneficent disci- 
 pline, it becomes extremely careful not to 
 transgress.' (p. 115.) 
 
 These truths appear more significant, when we 
 reflect that they hold as well in manhood as in 
 childhood. If a youth enters on life, and evinces 
 idleness or carelessness in the duties of his situa- 
 tion, he is dismissed at once, and left to suffer 
 the natural consequences of his misdoing. The 
 unpunctual man, ever missing the appointments 
 of business and pleasure, feels the losses and 
 inconveniences resulting from his conduct. The 
 train is gone, the steamboat is just leaving its 
 moorings, or the best things in the market are 
 sold, or all the good seats in the concert room 
 are filled, (p. 120.) The tradesman who charges 
 too high a rate of profit loses his customers, and so 
 is checked in his greediness. Diminishing practice 
 teaches the inattentive doctor to bestow more 
 trouble on his patients, and so, throughout the 
 life of every citizen, cause and effect succeed each 
 other with unerring precision and regularity. 
 
 These facts suggest the true theory and prac- 
 
286 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 tice of moral education. Parents, as 'ministers 
 and interpreters of nature/ must see that their 
 children habitually experience the true conse- 
 quences of their conduct neither warding them 
 off nor intensifying them, nor putting artificial 
 consequences in place of them. To take one or 
 two illustrations. When a child leaves its box of 
 toys scattered on the floor, the normal course 
 is to make the child itself collect them. The 
 labour of putting things in order is the true 
 consequence of having put them in disorder. 
 Every trader in his office, every wife in her 
 household, has daily experience of this fact ; and if 
 education be a preparation for the business of 
 life, then every child should have from the 
 beginning experience of the fact. If the child 
 refuse or neglect to pick up and put away the 
 things, and has thereby entailed the trouble of 
 doing this on some one else, it should, when next 
 it wants them, be denied the pleasure of working 
 with its toys at all, a little gentle reasoning being 
 applied to it at the same moment. This is 
 obviously a natural consequence, not dependent 
 on natural caprice. Take another case. A child 
 is never ready in time for its daily walk, never 
 thinking of putting on its things till the others 
 are at the door ; the scolding or cuffing invariably 
 given does not cure the evil, and nothing will 
 
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE. 287 
 
 but the natural penalty that should follow the 
 unpunctuality. If Jane is not ready at the ap- 
 pointed time, the natural result is that of being 
 left behind, and losing her walk. After she had 
 once or twice remained at home, while the rest 
 were enjoying themselves in the fields, amend- 
 ment would in all probability take place. At 
 any rate, the measure would be more effective 
 than that perpetual scolding which ends only 
 in producing callousness. Again, when children, 
 through carelessness, break or lose the things 
 given to them, the natural penalty is the loss 
 of the article, or the cost of replacing it. This 
 does not refer to that early period at which toys 
 are pulled to pieces in the process of learning 
 their physical properties, and at which the results 
 of carelessness are not understood, but to a later 
 period when the meaning and advantages of 
 property are perceived. When a boy, old enough 
 to possess a pen-knife, uses it so roughly as to 
 snap the blade, or leaves it in the grass by some 
 hedge-side, where he was cutting a stick, a 
 thoughtless parent or some indulgent relation 
 will commonly buy him another at once, not 
 seeing that, by doing this, a valuable lesson is 
 prevented. In such a case a father may properly 
 explain that pen-knives cost money, and that to 
 get money requires labour ; that he cannot afford 
 
288 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 to purchase new pen-knives for one who loses 
 or breaks them ; and that, until he sees evidence 
 of greater carefulness, he must decline to make 
 good the loss. A parallel discipline will serve 
 to check extravagances, (p. 121.) 
 
 The advantages of letting every misdemeanour 
 be followed by its natural inconvenience or 
 penalty are three in number : (i.) Right concep- 
 tions of cause and effect are created in the mind. 
 The child gains by degrees a knowledge of 
 causation, and is prepared thereby for proper 
 conduct in life; whereas in the case of a child 
 whose punishments have merely consisted in the 
 artificial ones of parental or tutorial displeasure, 
 it is found that when the restraints of parents 
 and tutors are removed, the youth plunges into 
 every description of extravagance, and has to 
 learn by experience the true restraints or natural 
 reactions which found no place in his early 
 training. (2.) This mode of discipline is one 
 of pure justice, and will be recognised as such 
 by every child. Suppose a boy is habitually 
 reckless of his clothes, scrambles through hedges 
 without caution, or is quite regardless of mud. 
 If he is beaten or sent to bed, he is apt to 
 consider himself ill-used, and is more likely to 
 brood over his injuries than to repent of his 
 transgressions. But suppose he is made to 
 
DISCIPLINE. 289 
 
 rectify the evil he has done mend the tear in 
 his garment, or clean off the mud adhering to 
 it, will he not feel that the evil is one of his 
 own producing ? Will he not be quite conscious 
 of the connexion between the penalty and the 
 cause, and, recognizing the justice of the arrange- 
 ment, will he not make a mental note to be 
 more careful in future ? If the boy shews ob- 
 tuseness, if several suits of clothes are spoiled, 
 the father, pursuing the same discipline of cause 
 and effect, will decline to purchase new clothes 
 till the ordinary time has elapsed, and meanwhile 
 the boy is debarred from many pleasant excur- 
 sions and from social gatherings, and in time 
 can scarcely fail to perceive that his own care- 
 lessness has been at the root of his misfortunes. 
 (3.) This system of discipline keeps the relation- 
 ship between parents and children sweeter than 
 it otherwise would be. There is no mutual 
 anger, no ruffling of temper as in the ordinary 
 artificial method of government, when parents 
 make or unmake family laws at pleasure, and 
 identify their own supremacy and dignity with 
 the maintenance of these laws, every trans- 
 gression being regarded as an offence against 
 themselves, and a cause of anger on their part. 
 There are no vexations arising from the parents 
 taking upon themselves, in the shape of extra 
 
2QO 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 labour or cost, the evil consequences which 
 should have been allowed to follow the wrong- 
 doers. A father, who beats his boy for carelessly 
 or wilfully breaking a sister's toy, and then him- 
 self pays for a new toy, inflicts an artificial 
 penalty on the transgressor, and takes the natural 
 penalty on himself, his own feelings and those 
 of the transgressor being alike needlessly irri- 
 tated. If he told the boy that a new toy must be 
 bought from his pocket-money, this would be far 
 less heart-burning, and the boy would at the 
 same time experience the equitable and salutary 
 consequence of his misdeed. Mutual exaspera- 
 tions being thus prevented, a much happier and 
 a more influential relation springs up between 
 parent and child. 
 
 These simple cases shew sufficiently the beauty 
 of what Spencer calls the * divinely-ordained 
 method ' of moral education. But he does not 
 rest here, but goes on to discuss the higher and 
 more subtle applications of the system. What 
 is to be done in cases of more serious miscon- 
 duct ? How is this plan to be carried out when a 
 petty theft has been committed, or when a lie 
 has been told ? Before replying to these ques- 
 tions, Spencer illustrates the beneficial effects 
 resulting from kindly relations between parents 
 and children, and remarks that if these relations 
 
MORAL DISCIPLINE. 
 
 291 
 
 were what they should be, serious offences would 
 be reduced to a minimum. At present this is far 
 from being the case, the general treatment of 
 children oscillating between petting and scold- 
 ing, between gentleness and castigation. A 
 mother commonly thinks it sufficient to tell her 
 little boy that she is his best friend, and, assum- 
 ing that he ought to believe her, concludes that 
 he will do so. ' It is all for your good.' * I 
 know what is proper for you better than you 
 do yourself/ ' You are not old enough to under- 
 stand it now, but when you grow up you will 
 thank me for doing what I do.' These, and 
 like assertions, are daily reiterated. Meanwhile 
 the boy is daily suffering positive penalties, and 
 is hourly forbidden to do this, that, and the other 
 thing, which he wishes to do. By words he hears 
 that his happiness is the end in view; but by 
 deeds he finds that pain is his portion in the 
 meantime. Naturally he becomes sceptical as 
 * to his mother's professions of friendship, and one 
 can hardly blame him, for would not the mother 
 reason in the same way if placed in similar cir- 
 cumstances ? If among her acquaintances she 
 found some one who was constantly thwarting 
 her wishes, uttering sharp reprimands, and occa- 
 sionally inflicting actual penalties on her, she 
 would pay small attention to any professions of 
 
2Q2 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 anxiety for her welfare which accompanied these 
 acts. (p. 129.) How different the result would be, 
 if the c divinely-ordained method' were pursued; in 
 which the mother not only avoids becoming the 
 instrument of punishment, but plays the part 
 of a friend by warning her child of the punish- 
 ment which nature will inflict. Suppose the 
 child with inquisitive promptings is burning 
 pieces of paper in the candle and watching the 
 effect. A mother of the unreflective type will, 
 on the plea of keeping him from mischief, or 
 from fear that he will burn himself, ordej him 
 to desist ; and, if he refuses, snatch the paper 
 from him. But a mother with brains will reason 
 thus : ' If I put a stop to this, I shall prevent 
 the acquirement of a certain amount of know- 
 ledge. It is true that I may save the child from 
 a burn, but what then ? He is sure to burn 
 himself sometime, and it is absolutely necessary 
 that he should learn sooner or later the properties 
 of flame, and he will probably come to learn 
 them at greater risk and with greater pain than 
 he may do now, when I am present. To save him 
 now from a hurt which he cannot conceive, and 
 which has therefore no existence for him, I hurt 
 him in a way which he feels keenly enough, and 
 so become from his point of view, a minister of 
 evil. My best course, then, is simply to warn 
 
NATURAL CONSEQUENCES. 293 
 
 him of the danger, and to be ready to prevent 
 any serious damage/ She contents herself, there- 
 fore, with saying, ' I fear you will hurt yourself 
 if you do that.' The boy perseveres and ends 
 by burning his hand with what results ? He 
 has gained experience which he must have 
 gained sooner or later; and he has found that 
 his mother's warning was meant for his good ; he 
 has therefore a further proof of her benevolence, 
 and of her judgment, a further reason for loving 
 her. (p. 130.) 
 
 The only exception I should take to Spen- 
 cer's recommendation in this case or any 
 other attended with danger to a child is this : 
 the mother, in the case supposed, is near the 
 child, and no serious hurt can befall him ; but 
 suppose that at this time he does not hurt 
 himself, and the next time he plays with fire 
 his mother should be absent, what serious acci- 
 dent might not happen ? Spencer, of course, 
 recommends that when there is danger to life 
 and limb, forcible prevention must be adopted. 
 A three-year-old urchin playing with an open 
 razor cannot be allowed to learn by this dis- 
 cipline of consequences, for the consequences may 
 be too serious. But, leaving out extreme cases, 
 we should pursue the system, not of guarding a 
 child from the small risks which it daily runs, 
 
294 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 but that of advising and warning it against them. 
 Instead of being told in words, which deeds seem 
 to contradict, that their parents are their best 
 friends, children will learn this truth by a con- 
 sistent daily experience, and so learning it will 
 acquire a degree of trust and attachment which 
 nothing else can give. 
 
 The bearing which all this has on the disposal 
 of graver offences is a most important one, for 
 graver offences are reduced to a minimum under 
 this regime. When such offences do occur, 
 however, as they will occasionally occur, even 
 under the best system, the discipline of natural 
 consequences should still be resorted to. In the 
 case of a theft we must consider what its natural 
 consequences are. They are of two kinds direct 
 and indirect ; restitution of the thing stolen, or 
 the giving of an equivalent, and the grave dis- 
 pleasure of parents, which will be potent for 
 good in proportion to the warmth of attachment 
 existing between parent and child ; and few will 
 question the fact that the pain of the second may 
 be more intense than that of the first, for \vho has 
 not regarded as a serious misfortune long and 
 keenly regretted by him, the displeasure of an 
 admired and cherished friend ? Spencer, who is 
 more suggestive than exhaustive, does not take 
 any further case, but leaves the disposal of 
 
DEALING WITH CHILDREN. 
 
 295 
 
 other offences, such as cruelty, lying, and swear- 
 ing, to the student's ingenuity. 
 
 Spencer concludes his essay on moral edu- 
 cation by a few practical maxims and rules : 
 First, do not expect from a child any great 
 amount of moral goodness, for our higher moral 
 faculties are comparatively late in their evolution, 
 and an early activity, produced by stimulation, 
 will be at the expense of the future character. 
 Children who were models of juvenile goodness 
 often end by being below par in riper years ; and 
 on the other hand exemplary men are often the 
 issue of a childhood by no means promising. Be 
 content, therefore, with moderate measures and 
 moderate results. Have patience with your 
 child's imperfections, and you will be less prone 
 to that constant scolding and threatening and 
 forbidding, by which many parents induce a 
 chronic domestic irritation, in the foolish hope 
 that they will thus make their children what they 
 should be. Second, satisfy yourself with seeing 
 that your child always suffers the natural conse- 
 quences of his actions ; leave him, whenever you 
 can, to the discipline of experience, and pause 
 in each case of transgression to consider what is 
 the natural consequence, and how it may best be 
 brought home to the transgressor. You must be 
 careful at the same time to shew your approba- 
 
296 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 tion or disapprobation in a marked way, for while 
 parental displeasure and its artificial penalties 
 should never be substituted for natural penalties, it 
 should invariably accompany them. Such amount 
 of sorrow or indignation as you feel should be 
 expressed in words or manner, subject of course 
 to the approval of your judgment. Third, be 
 sparing of commands. Command only when 
 other means are inapplicable or have failed. 
 * In frequent orders the parent's advantage is 
 more considered than the child's/ says Richter. 
 Fourth, but whenever you do command, com- 
 mand with decision and consistency. If the case 
 is one which really cannot be otherwise dealt with, 
 then issue your fiat, and having issued it, never 
 afterwards swerve from it. Let your penalties 
 be like the penalties inflicted by inanimate nature 
 inevitable. The hot cinder burns a child the 
 first time he seizes it ; it burns him the second 
 time; it burns him the third time; it burns him 
 every time ; and he very soon learns not to touch 
 the hot cinder. If you are equally consistent ; if 
 the consequences which you tell your child will 
 follow specified acts, follow with like uniformity, 
 he will soon come to respect your laws as he does 
 those of nature, (p. 139.) Fifth, remember that 
 the aim of your discipline should be to produce a 
 self-governing being ; not to produce a being 
 
SELF-CONTROL IN CHILDREN. 
 
 297 
 
 to be governed by others. Your children are 
 meant to be freemen not slaves, and it is your 
 duty to accustom them to self-control, while they 
 are still under your eye. The history of domestic 
 rule should typify the history of our political 
 rule ; at the outset, autocratic control, where con- 
 trol is really needful ; by and bye an incipient 
 constitutionalism, in which the liberty of the 
 subject gains some express recognition ; succes- 
 sive extensions of this liberty of the subject 
 gradually ending in parental abdication (p. 140), 
 an advice which is in other words identical with 
 Locke's. Lastly, always recollect that to educate 
 rightly is not a simple and easy thing, but a 
 complex and extremely difficult thing. If you 
 would carry out with success a rational and 
 civilized system, you must be prepared for con- 
 siderable mental exertion, for some study, some 
 ingenuity, some patience, some self-control. You 
 will have habitually to consider what are the 
 results which in adult life follow certain kinds 
 of acts ; and you must then devise methods by 
 which parallel results shall be entailed on the 
 parallel acts of your children. Especially if you 
 are dealing with children who have been wrongly 
 treated, you must be prepared for a lengthened 
 trial of patience, before succeediirciiwith better 
 methods, since that which is not easy, even, where 
 
298 HERBER T SPENCER. 
 
 s 
 
 a right state of feeling has been established from 
 the beginning, becomes doubly difficult when a 
 wrong state of feeling has to be set right. 
 (p. 142.) This advice is well suited to teachers. 
 In brief, you will have to carry on your own 
 higher education at the same time that you are 
 educating your children. Intellectually, you 
 must cultivate to good purpose that most com- 
 plex of subjects human nature, and its laws, 
 as exhibited in your children, in yourself, and 
 in the world. Morally, you must keep in con- 
 stant exercise your higher feelings and restrain 
 your lower. It is a truth yet remaining to be 
 recognized that the last stage in the mental 
 development of each man and woman is only 
 to be reached through a proper discharge of the 
 parental duties. The method of education thus 
 proposed, though it calls for much labour and 
 self-sacrifice, yet promises an abundant return 
 of happiness immediate and remote ; for, as 
 Spencer observes, a good system is twice blessed ; 
 it bjesses him that trains, and him that 's trained. 
 Thus closes, ' not only one of the most readable, 
 but also one of the most important books on 
 education in the English language.' 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Activities of human life, . 244 
 
 ^sop's Fables, .... 34 
 
 Agricultural Schools, . .212 
 
 Arithmetic (Locke). ... 40 
 
 ,, (Pestalozzi), . . 94 
 
 ,, (Lancaster), . .157 
 
 (Stow), ... 213 
 
 Arnold, Dr., on Public 
 
 Schools, 12 
 
 Art of Teaching (Locke), . 31 
 ,, (Pestalozzi), . .118 
 ,, (Wilderspin), 170, 1 80 
 ,, (Spencer), . . 265 
 
 Ball-frame, 182 
 
 Bell, Dr. Andrew, see Table 
 of Contents. 
 
 Biber on Mutual Instruction 79 
 
 Bible (Locke), ... 47 
 (Lancaster), . . 1 60 
 (Wilderspin), . . 182 
 (Stow), . . . 202 208 
 Picturing out, . . 220 
 Reading, . . . 202 
 Teaching, . . . 202 
 Training, . . 202 206 
 Training Lesson, . 208 
 
 Book-keeping (Locke), . 40 
 ,, (Stow), . 214 
 
 British and Foreign School 
 Society, 146 
 
 Buchanan, Mr., the First 
 Infant Master, . . . .167 
 
 Chairs of Education, . . 148' 
 
 Children, Behaviour of, . . 21 
 
 ,, Curiosity of, . .30 
 
 ,, Locke's love for, 6 
 
 Classification, 227 
 
 ,, of human activities, 244 
 Committing to Memory, . 36* 
 Composition (Locke), . . 41 
 Corporal Punishment 
 
 (Locke), 22, 23 
 
 (Bell), . . 137 
 
 Cowper on Public Schools, II 
 
 Criticism lessons, . . .193 
 
 De Fellenberg, . . . .100 
 Discipline (Locke), . . . 19 
 (Dr. Bell), . . 133 
 (Lancaster), . .159 
 (Wilderspin), . 179 
 (Spencer), . . 283 
 of Natural Conse- 
 quences, . . 285. 
 Donaldson, Dr., on the Moni- 
 torial System, . . . .139 
 Drawing (Locke), . 39 
 (Pestalozzi), . . 93 
 (Spencer), ... 279 
 Dunn, Mr., on Monitorial 
 System, 141 
 
 Edgeworth, Miss, 125, 284, note.. 
 
 Education, Infant (Pestalozzi), 73 
 
 (Wilderspin), 179 
 
.300 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Education, Infant (Spencer), 276 
 Education, Intellectual 
 
 (Stow), . . 201 
 (Spencer), . 265 
 Mixed (Stow), . 228 
 Moral (Locke), 19, 25 
 ,, (Pestalozzi), 80 
 ,, (Spencer), 283, 295 
 Physical (Locke), . 17 
 (Bell), . 135 
 (Stow), . 236 
 ,, (Spencer), 248 
 "Evening Hour of a Hermit," 65 
 4( Experiment on Education," 
 (Dr. Bell), 127 
 
 Fichte, 104 
 
 Fitch, Mr., on Monitorial 
 System, . . . . . . 140 
 
 Flattery (Locke), ... 27 
 French (Locke), .... 43 
 
 Gallery Lessons, .... 209 
 ,, Moral Training in, . 232 
 
 Geography, 281 
 
 ,, (Pestalozzi), . 99 
 
 ^Geometry, 272 
 
 Glasgow Education Society, 190 
 
 Grammar (Locke), ... 41 
 
 (Stow), ... 223 
 
 ,, (Spencer), . . 266 
 
 Health, Locke's Rules on, . 1 8 
 History for Children, . .257 
 Home and Colonial Society, 184 
 " How Gertrude teaches her 
 Children," . . 78, 86, 97 
 
 Industrial School (Pestalozzi), 61 
 
 Infant Education ,, 73 
 
 (Wilderspin), 179 
 
 ,, (Spencer), . 276 
 
 Infant Schools, origin of, . 166 
 
 ,, organization of, 171 
 
 Infant School Society 
 
 ,, (Home and Colonial), 184 
 ,, (London), . . . .171 
 
 Infant Teachers, qualifica- 
 tions of, . . . . . .179 
 
 Intellectual Education 
 
 (Spencer), 265 
 ,, (Stow), . 201 
 
 Johnson, Dr. Samuel, . .199 
 
 Kindergarten System, . .181 
 Knowledges, relative value of, 259 
 
 Lancaster, Joseph, see Table 
 
 of Contents. 
 
 Lancaster's School, . . .153 
 Language, Exercises in, .91 
 Languages versus Science, . 259 
 Latin (Locke), .... 45 
 Learning should be interest- 
 ing (Locke), . . 32 
 ,, (Wilderspin), 183 
 
 ,, (Spencer), . 280 
 
 Learning by rote, . 241, 266 
 Leibnitz on Locke's 
 
 "Thoughts," .... 4 
 Locke, John, see Table of 
 
 Contents. 
 
 " Leonard and Gertrude," . 68 
 Letterwriting (Locke), . . 42 
 
 Madras System, . . . .127 
 Marcel, M., quoted, . 266, 267 
 "Measure of Value" in 
 
 Knowledge, . . . . . 242 
 Mental Evolution, . . . 267 
 Mixed System, . . 177, 228 
 Monitor, the First, . . .123 
 Monitorial System 
 
 (Pestalozzi), .... 78 
 
 (Biber), 79 
 
 (Dr. Bell), .... 127 
 
 (Lancaster), 
 (Stow), .... 
 (Dr. Donaldson), . 
 (Mr. Fitch), . . . 
 (Professor Pillans), . 
 (Mr. Dunn), 
 
 156 
 237 
 139 
 140 
 141 
 141 
 
 Applied to Agriculture, 163 
 
INDEX. 
 
 301 
 
 Montaigne on * ' Learning 
 
 by rote," 266 
 
 Moral Discipline (Locke), 19, 25 
 
 (Dr. Bell), . . 133 
 
 ,, (Lancaster), . .159 
 
 ,, (Spencer), . . 283 
 
 , , Rules for, . . . 295 
 
 Moral Training (Pestalozzi), 80 
 
 (Wilderspin), 177 
 
 (Stow), . . 232 
 
 in gallery, . 232 
 
 Morf's Pestalozzi, . 120, note. 
 
 Museums for Schools, . .213 
 
 National Society, .... 145 
 Nature to be followed in 
 Education (Pestalozzi), . 66 
 (Wilderspin), . 180 
 
 ,, (Spencer), . . 267 
 
 Nature, teachings of, 
 
 245, 274, 284 
 
 Normal School, the first, . 191 
 
 ,, Glasgow Free Church, 197 
 
 Nursery Legislation, . . .253 
 
 Oberlin, 166 
 
 Oberlin College, .... 230 
 
 Object Lessons (Pestalozzi), 82 
 
 ,, ( Professor Moseley), 83 
 
 ,, (Raumer), . . .113 
 
 ,, (Spencer), ... 277 
 
 Observing powers, culture of, 
 
 182, 196, 274 
 
 Organization (Dr. Bell), . 127 
 ,, (Wilderspin),. 171 
 
 Paidometer, 138 
 
 Perspective, 271 
 
 Pestalozzi, Henry, see Table 
 
 of Contents. 
 
 Physical Education (Locke), 1 7 
 
 (Bell), . 135 
 
 ,, (Stow),. 236 
 
 ,, (Spencer), 248 
 
 Physiology, 247 
 
 Pictures, 183 
 
 Picturing-out, 215 
 
 Pillans, Professor, on Moni- 
 torial System, .... 141 
 Pitt, Education of, ... 13, 
 Play-ground, moral training 
 in, . . . . . 177, 232 
 , , Superintendence in, 235 
 Poetry, Learning of, . . . 37 
 Praise (Locke), .... 29 
 Principles of Teaching, . . 268 
 Private Education, ... 8' 
 Public Schools, evils of, . 10 
 Cowper on, . . . n 
 Dr. Arnold on, . 12 
 Suggestions on, 14, 231 
 Punisiments (Locke), . . 28 
 (Bell),. . .133 
 (Lancaster), . 159 
 (Spencer), . 288 
 
 Quick, Mr., quoted, 68, 252, 282 
 
 Raikes, Robert, . . . .187 
 Ramsauer on Pestalozzi, 
 
 89, 95> I0 9 
 
 Raumer, Carl Von, . . .105 
 
 ,, on Pestalozzi, . .112 
 
 Reading (Locke), . . . 33 
 
 (Bell), .... 138 
 
 ,, (Lancaster),. . . 157 
 
 ,, Bible, .... 202 
 
 ,, without intelligence, 204 
 
 Religious Teaching (Locke), 47 
 
 ,, (Lancaster), . 160 
 
 ,, (Wilderspin), 182 
 
 ,, (Stow), 202, 208 
 
 Rewards (Locke), ... 27 
 
 ,, (Lancaster), . .159 
 
 Sabbath Schools, . 
 School Museums, . 
 Science Lessons, . 
 , , Teaching, 
 Benefits of, 
 
 . 187 
 . 213 
 
 . 209 
 . 250 
 250 
 
 of Education, . . 268 
 
 Science versus Classics, . . 259 
 
 Seeley, Professor, quoted, . 282 
 
 Shaftesbury, Earls of, . . 3, 
 
302 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Simpson, Mr., on Wilder- 
 spin, 185 
 
 Simultaneous Teaching 
 
 (Pestalozzi), 78 
 (Stow), . . 227 
 
 Sociology, 255 
 
 Spencer, Herbert, see Table 
 of Contents. 
 
 Stewart, Dugald, on Locke's 
 "Thoughts," .... 49 
 
 Stow, David, see Table of 
 Contents. 
 
 Syllabification (Dr. Bell), . 138 
 ,, (Lancaster), .157 
 
 Sympathy of Numbers, . . 225 
 
 Teacher, estimate of a 
 (Pestalozzi's), 
 (Bell's), 
 
 118 
 
 129 
 
 (Wilderspin's), 179 
 (Spencer's), . 265 
 
 Teaching, Golden Rule in, . 137 
 Training System 
 
 (Wilderspin), 176 
 (Stow), . . 198 
 Training Lessons, 208, 209, 220 
 Translation, .... 46, 47 
 Trial by Jury, . . . 134, 233 
 Trimmer, Mrs., .... 143 
 Tutor, Locke's estimate of a, 14 
 
 Verses, Latin, .... 46 
 
 Weights and Measures, 183, 269 
 Wilderspin, Samuel, see 
 
 Table of Contents. 
 Words and Things 
 
 (Pestalozzi), . 84 
 
 ,, (Wilderspin), 180 
 
 Writing (Locke), .... 37 
 
 ,, on sand, 123, 137, 156 
 
 Wyse, Mr., quoted, . 266, 268 
 
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